Melody Barnes: Lucky Ones
by JanaeSpecter14
Summary: Three months in New York learning all about SHIELD haven't been the best, but that's the least of her problems. Clint has been taken by the God of Mischief, Loki. She officially meets her super soldier great uncle and is now experiencing the tension between Tony and Steve from being their only family left. Can the Avengers Initiative truly work? Fourth installment of Melody Barnes.
1. The Avengers

"_**Every now and then the stars align. Boy and girl meet by the grand design. Could it be that you and me are the lucky ones? Everybody told me love was blind, but then I saw your face and you blew my mind. Finally, you and me are the lucky ones this time."**_

_**-The Lucky Ones by Lana Del Rey**_

* * *

_The Tesseract has awakened. It's on a neutral world. A human world. They will wield its power, but our ally will know it's workings like they never will. He's ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri will follow. The world will be his and the universe yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn._

* * *

As all SHIELD agents proceeded to run around trying to evacuate, Coulson and Emily stood calmly in the storm as the helicopter landed right in front of them. Maria Hill climbed out first, followed by Director Nick Fury. One of them had to be at the location of the Tesseract, and honestly, they played rock, paper scissors to see if it was going to be Fury or Emily. Now that it was acting up, they both had to be there, and they both had to solve this. "How bad is it?" Fury asked while looking back and forth between the two.

Emily and Coulson both looked to each other, not sure how to tell him this. "That's the problem, sir. We don't know."

Fury looked to Emily like she was in deep trouble, causing her to roll her eyes. It's not like she was the one who went in there and began messing with the Tesseract. "Follow me." She led them into the building, past the fleeing agents and into an elevator, leading them to the bottom levels of the area. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to pull the test phase."

Emily sighed as she spun around, turning to face the one person who had more power in SHIELD than she did. "He wasn't testing it, Nick." She shook her head at his confusion and turned back around, continuing to lead the group. "He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement."

"It just turned itself on?" Maria asked as Emily gave her a shrug.

"What are the engine levels now?" Fury inquired.

"Climbing." Coulson informed. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac."

"How long to get everyone out?"

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."

Fury turned slightly to look at Coulson. "Do better." Coulson stopped walking, turned around and proceeded to do more to get everyone out.

"Sir," Maria spoke as they got to a staircase, beginning to go down it to get to the very underground levels where the Tesseract was being kept. "Evacuation may be futile."

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Emily asked out of disbelief as she half turned to look at her.

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."

"We need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out." Fury told her without giving a glance.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now? We-"

"Until such time as the world ends," Fury cut her off, actually turning to look at her this time. "We will act as though it intends to spin on." Emily looked to him like she was upset. Mostly because she was. These people were helping and Fury never treated them like they were. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."

"Yes, sir." Maria spoke politely, but obviously pissed off.

As she walked away, Emily stared at Fury with an annoyed face. "What?" He asked in an accusing voice.

Emily shook her head as she continued to walk down the stairs. "These people are risking their lives every day by being involved with SHIELD, and you don't care."

"I care about my workers."

Emily stopped on the bottom step, turning around to look at him. "Not like you should."

"I can still fire you, you know?" He spoke blandly.

"But you won't." She spoke in a cocky tone as she turned around.

"You're just like your daughter." He whispered as he followed her all the way to the Tesseract.

* * *

Clint sat on his perch, as always, knowing he saw better with a bird's eye view. Today, he wasn't getting a lot of work down. And that was probably the worst thing he could have done today of all days. It just wasn't good timing. The Tesseract malfunctioning on Melody's birthday. The year anniversary of when their relationship truly started. All the memories were passing through his head, making today a very unproductive one.

He was staring at a photo from the photo booth at the Malibu beach. He had the one where he kissed her on the cheek, and Melody looked to the camera with a shocked face. He would look down every now and then, but he kept getting distracted by that picture. It brought up a lot of emotions. One of the heavy ones being that they had been in the same state for months, and he still hadn't gone to visit her like he promised.

When he looked down, he noticed that Emily and Fury had now walked into the room. He knew this one was going to be good. And he knew he was going to get called down there in three, two…"Agent Barton, report."

Clint smiled to himself. It was clockwork by now. With the picture still in his hand, he slid down the rope waiting for him, and made his way to the two waiting for him. As he joined in between the two leaders, they all began walking together. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."

"Well," He spoke with a shrug as he felt Emily's eyes on him. He knew she was worried about how he was feeling about today, but he didn't want to tell her. She'd be the last person he'd tell. "I see better from a distance."

"Are you seeing anything that might set this off?" Emily inquired as she stepped in front of him, stopping him from walking.

Clint sighed as he looked to the Tesseract, moving closer to it. "No one's come or gone. Selvig's clean. No contacts. No IM's. If there was any tampering, ma'am, it wasn't at this end."

Emily and Fury both turned to him with confused faces at that one. "At this end?" Fury questioned.

"Yeah," Clint spoke with a shrug. "The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" Emily looked down with thought, wondering why she hadn't noticed this yet. She was around this project just as long as him, and she still hadn't noticed what he had noticed. Maybe Clint should have been Supervisor. "Doors open from both sides."

Fury and Emily looked to each other, both sharing their thought about how stupid they were not to figure that out. Then, the Tesseract began making noises none of them had heard before. Their casual stances turned into ones of readiness, each of them having a hand on their gun holster. The entire building began shaking as a portal opened. The energy went back on them, and once it was gone, there stood Loki of Asgard.

But here, no one knew that. He was just some threat. A threat they were going to have to take care of. Almost everyone had their guns aimed on this threat and everyone was ready for an attack if one needed to take place. "Sir!" Fury finally yelled out, breaking the intense silence. "Please put down the spear."

Loki looked down at his spear, realizing that they were afraid of this thing. It was unknown. So, might as well show them what it can do. He shot it off towards the man calling the shots, causing Clint to tackle down both Fury and Emily for their safety. Everyone began shooting at Loki, but he took them down with daggers like they were nothing. Clint got up to shoot at the Asgardian, avoiding Loki's shots and daggers expertly. Emily stayed down, protecting Fury, trying to find a way to get the Tesseract and Fury out of here safely.

Loki looked around at his destruction when he noticed one of the soldiers was getting right back up. He ran to him, grabbing his arm before he could get at his gun. Clint struggled in his grasp, knowing in that moment he had nothing to defend himself with, and this guy was killing everyone he could. He knew he was done for, and in that moment, he held onto that picture of Melody tighter than anything. He loved her and that was the last bit of her he would have left until the moment he died.

In that moment, Loki saw all the emotion that passed over Clint's face, and something about that made him want to keep this one around. "You have heart."

Clint was squirming as he brought the spear to his chest and made his eyes go black then back to blue. Clint looked up at Loki, part of him accepting him as his leader and the other part screaming. He holstered his gun as his other hand released, letting the picture of him and Melody fall out of his hands and to the ground.

Fury looked up as Emily's eyes were focused on Clint. He got the Tesseract, put it into its case and pulled up Emily, preparing to drag her out of there as Loki took over another SHIELD agent. He pushed Emily in front of him, but they both stopped when they heard, "Please don't." Emily shut her eyes, scared that they weren't going to get away. "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury told him without turning around.

"Of course it does." He growled as both Emily and Fury turned around to face him. "I've come too far for anything else." Emily looked him up and down, and then looked to Clint who stared off with dead eyes. He truly was taken over. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki," Selvig mused as he stood up, but neither Fury nor Emily looked away from Loki. "Brother of Thor."

"We have no quarrel with your people." Emily finally spoke while putting up a hand, showing she meant no harm.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

Both Emily and Fury gave him a concerned look. "Are you planning to step on us?" Emily asked in a threatened way, obviously getting upset with the intruder.

"I come with glad tidings." He moved closer to them with a bright smile on his face, Emily and Fury making a point to try to protect each other. "Of a world made free." Loki looked to Dr. Selvig with an interested face, concerning Emily.

"Free from what?" Fury asked, trying to get in front of Emily.

"Freedom." Fury and Emily shared a worried look before looking right back to Loki. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that in your heart," He spun around quickly, putting his spear to Selvig's chest, taking him over, causing Emily to clench her teeth. Loki now had two of their best assets. "You will know peace."

"Yeah," Fury half laughed out. "You say peace, but I kind of think you mean the other thing."

Loki smiled, but then his eyes drifted to Emily. He looked her up and down, seeing something in her, but he couldn't exactly tell what it was. It was like he wasn't let in on a joke everyone here knew. Or information that everyone here knew. "Sir," Clint spoke as he moved to Loki. The other part of him was cursing him for giving him any information. "Director Fury and Supervisor Carter are stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of raw material on us. They plan to bury us."

"Like the Pharaohs of Odin." Emily told Loki with a glare, knowing he was staring at her.

"He's right." Selvig told them from his computer. "The portal is collapsing on itself. You've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

Loki looked to Clint, giving him his first order. "Drop them."

Clint pulled out his gun as fast as he could manage and shot Fury in the shoulder, having it go clean out and into Emily's shoulder. The two fell down, dropping the case with the Tesseract in it, causing Erik to pick it up as he walked by.

Clint walked up the stairs, all the other guards were either with them or dead, leaving them with an easy escape. They found Maria at the top of the stairs, but Clint didn't think twice about it. He was her senior agent. She had to do what he said. "We need these vehicles."

Everyone who was with Loki began loading the vehicle Maria was trying to use to get the Phase 2 prototypes out on. She took one look at Loki and knew that something wasn't right. "Who's that?"

Clint half turned to her as everyone got into the truck and he made his way to the driver's seat. "He didn't tell me." Maria was still confused as she turned around, deciding to do what he told her, but kept a close ear on her radio for Fury or Emily.

Emily was currently bear crawling to the picture of Clint and Melody on the ground with the bullet still in her shoulder. Right when she got to it, she pocketed it, and looked to Fury who was grasping his aching shoulder while holding his radio in the other hand. "Hill, do you copy?" He grunted out right when Emily yanked the bullet out of her shoulder. Fury hurried over to Emily, helping her up, getting ready to get them both out of the crumbling structure. "Barton has been compromised."

That was the only confirmation Maria and Clint needed to start firing on each other. Clint started, causing Maria to roll out of the way, finding cover so she could shoot with the proper protection. But Barton was getting away. She shot at the truck as he got in the driver's seat, but it was no use as they drove away unscathed.

"He's got the Tesseract." Emily spoke into her radio as both Fury and Emily began to hurry to the stairs. "Track it down!" Maria didn't need any more orders after that. She jumped into the nearest truck she could find and began chasing after Clint.

Coulson hurried, getting everyone out of the building at all costs, even if it meant leaving some important equipment. Right when he got the last of them on trucks out of there, he pulled out his own radio. "Director, Supervisor, we cleared upstairs. You need to go!" Right as he spoke, Fury and Emily made it to the top of the building just as it was crumbling, getting on their helicopter and beginning to fly out.

Maria continued her chase on Clint, making both cars face each other. Clint shot, but on the inside, he was hating himself for shooting, trying to miss as much as possible. Clint was still under the control of Loki, so he was going to do anything to get Loki out of there safely. He stepped on the accelerator as hard as he could, forcing Maria to move from out of his way and get right back behind him.

Right as everyone made their escape, the left over energy from the Tesseract exploded, sending everything to crumble into itself. Maria now had to travel even faster than before, now worrying about getting out of there in time. Colson watched in horror as everything behind him was crumbling. And Emily and Fury watched from below, hoping they got a lot of people out of there.

Maria was stopped by a large rock falling in front of her and on both sides as Clint made it out before he could find the same problem. Fury and Emily saw Clint escaping, causing Fury to get an idea. "Go after that truck!" He yelled to the pilot.

"Fury!" Emily scolded as the pilot did what he said. "That's Clint!"

"It's not him right now!" He yelled right back as he hurried to the door of the plane.

Clint began to turn off the road as Fury steadied his gun on him. He felt guilty about it, but he had to get the Tesseract back. He shot off he was gun, hitting the truck in a few good places, but Loki had the better weapon. He picked up his spear, aiming right at the plane.

The back part caught on fire, causing Fury and Emily to jump out right when they got low enough to the ground, knowing they wouldn't break anything. Emily rolled out of the plane after Fury, looking up just in time to see Loki looking back at them, knowing he had got away.

"Director?" They suddenly heard on their radios. "Supervisor? Do you copy?"

Emily looked to Fury while holding onto her aching ribs as she pulled out her radio. "The Director and I are fine. The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down."

Fury pulled out his own radio, weakly pressing the button to talk. "Hill?"

"A lot of men still under." She answered as she pulled herself out of the truck, taking deep breaths while looking around at the area. "Don't know how many survivors."

"Sound the general call." Emily commanded. "I want every soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that." Maria answered.

"Coulson," Fury spoke through his radio. "This is a level seven. As of right now," He turned to look at Emily for her guidance which she shrugged to, knowing it was the only thing they could do. "We are at war."

Coulson sat there for a moment, letting those words sink in, knowing this was the biggest thing SHIELD was ever going to have to deal with. "What do we do?"

Fury took the radio away from his mouth, knowing there was only one thing they could do. His eyes drifted to Emily for guidance, her breath still heavy from everything they had just went through. They couldn't do this alone. Not even if they tried. They needed people. A team. A man in an iron suit. A trained assassin and SHIELD agent. A man who had some…interesting affects after being exposed to gamma radiation. A god. And her daughter. She slowly pulled her radio to her mouth with a sigh, answering for Fury. "We call the Avengers."

_**Merry Christmas! I know I said I would be putting this story up after the holidays, but I started writing last night and the whole first chapter just poured right out. Don't worry, Melody will be back in the next chapter. I wanted this chapter to focus more on Emily and her being in charge at SHIELD. I hope you're all having a merry Christmas and for those of you that don't celebrate, I hope you're just having a great day! Please review and I will have the next chapter up soon!**_


	2. The Team

Natasha sat in a tied up chair on the second floor on an abandoned warehouse next to train tracks. The train's whistle sounded right as the man holding Natasha smacked her across the face. She let out deep breaths and looked back to the men. She continued to play dumb while simultaneously pulling all information she could out of the leader.

Right as he got tired of her, he moved to a table full of tools, planning to pull every single tooth out of her mouth slowly and painfully when a ringing phone interrupted all of them. One of his henchmen pulled out a phone, answered it, and handed it to the man in charge. Before he could say anything, Coulson's voice came on the phone. "You're at 114 Silenskin Box. Third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can even make it to the lobby."

He looked to the phone fearfully and then passed it to Natasha. She balanced it between her shoulder and head, taking a deep breath, ready for what he had to tell her. "We need you to come in."

"Are you kidding?" She yelled out. This was very unprofessional, but right now, at a time like this, they couldn't afford to be professional. "I'm working!"

"This takes precedence." He told her calmly, not sure if he wanted to jump into some news she was going to take hard.

She let out an eye roll before her eyes shifted to her captor. "I'm in the middle of the interrogation and this moron is giving me everything."

"I don't," He began in a self-conscious voice as he looked back and forth at his henchmen. "Give everything."

Natasha gave him a face before looking back to the phone. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

"Natasha," Coulson began calmly. "Barton's been compromised."

He practically whispered the words, causing Natasha's eyes to narrow. This was her partner. Her best friend. He saved her life and became a brother to her when she needed him the most. He was right. This does take precedence. "Let me put you on hold."

Her captor went for the phone, and once he got close enough, she kicked him in the balls and head butted him. She stood up, still tied to her chair as the henchmen went for her. She kicked one and hit the other with the chair. Coulson patiently waited on the phone with the sound of her beating the crap out of these guys.

She ended up out of the chair with both henchmen tied up and their leader hanging to a chain by his ankle. She picked up the phone and her heels like nothing had happened and began to hurry out. "Where is Barton right now?"

"We don't know."

"But he's alive."

"We think so."

Natasha took a sigh, worrying the most about Melody. "Does Barnes know?"

"Emily wants to tell her." Coulson was looking over a checklist of all the other Avengers, deciding who Natasha was going to have to talk to next. "I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."

She began to laugh at that order. "Coulson, you know Stark and Barnes trust me about as far as they can throw me."

"Oh," He half laughed out. "I've got Stark and Barnes. You've got the big guy."

She stopped walking, her eyes getting wide, realizing she was going to have to get the Hulk. "Oh, God."

* * *

Fury and Emily stood in front of the video conference with all the members of the World Security Council. The Tesseract getting stolen was a huge problem, and Fury and Emily were the two people who were getting in trouble for it. "This is out of line, Fury, Carter. You're dealing with forces you can't control."

"Have you ever been in a war, Councilmen?" Fury asked while looking back and forth at all of the council members. "In a firefight? Did you ever feel an overabundance of control?"

"You're saying that this…Asgard has declared war on our planet?" Another council member asked.

"Not Asgard." Emily corrected quickly, realizing how bad this could have gone if they were focused on a whole realm instead of one person from it. "Loki."

"He can't be working alone." The other councilwoman spoke. "What about the other one? His brother?"

"Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile." Emily defended, remembering Coulson's report on Thor.

"But he's worlds away." Fury defended. "We can't depend on him to help either."

"It's up to us." Emily told them with the nod of her head.

"Which is why you two should be focusing on Phase 2." Fury and Emily looked to each other, sharing a subtle eye roll. "It was designed for exactly-"

"Phase 2 isn't ready." Emily protested angrily. She was someone who believed in the Avengers more than anything because it showed that she believed in her daughter, and she needed Melody to know that. "Our enemy is. We _need_ a response team."

"The Avengers Initiative was shot down." The first councilmen protested angrily.

"This isn't about the Avengers." Fury told them calmly.

"We've seen the list." The councilman told them both, but looked at Emily intensely, it mostly directed towards her, knowing her daughter was on that list. "We're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're gonna leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks."

Emily's fist clenched up, but Fury put his hand over hers, trying not to show the council how mad they were making her, knowing she hated that she could possibly be showing a sign of weakness. "I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team."

"These people may be isolated." Emily finally spoke up, moving her hand out of the fist it was in and out from behind Fury's hand. "Unbalanced even, but we believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."

"You believe?" The councilwoman asked in an unimpressed tone.

"War isn't run by sentiment, Supervisor."

"No," She spoke with a slight smile, her eyes going to Fury who shared the same smile. "It's won by soldiers."

* * *

Steve Rogers was currently pounding a punching bag since he couldn't sleep. It wasn't like this was a new development. He could hardly ever sleep anymore. This time was a lot louder and brighter. There was also a lot more haunting him here. The remembrance of Bucky's death, Peggy turned into someone who didn't even remember him, Howard being dead while leaving a son behind…Maria being dead. That was the one that stung the most. He wasn't supposed to be alive to fathom a world without his little sister. He was supposed to die long before her. This was the one thing that hurt him the most about this world. It was a world without Maria.

His punches got harder the more he thought about it. The more he thought about something he could have done to be there. To possibly prevent her death. If he wouldn't have been so hell bent to join the army, Maria would probably still be alive. Bucky would still be alive. Everyone he cared about would have been perfectly safe, and he wouldn't be here now hating that he was still alive. That's when his punch got so hard that he knocked the punching bag off its hook and all the sand inside of it began to fall out.

Steve stretched his neck out a little bit as he looked at the punching bag before going to get another. This happened a lot more often than he would like to admit. He went right back to punching, trying to focus his thoughts on something else. Anything else. "Trouble sleeping?"

He stopped punching and looked where the voice had come from. Nick Fury and Emily Carter were standing at the entrance of the gym. He didn't know these people, but he wasn't totally sure if he could trust them yet. Especially since he had to find out that he had a great niece that looked just like his sister on his own. "I slept for seventy years, sir, and ma'am. I think I've had my fill." He stopped punching, thinking about it all over again.

"Then you should be out." Emily told him with a shrug. "Celebrating and seeing the world."

Steve looked to her, hearing a bit of Peggy in her voice. This was her daughter. "When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won, but they didn't say what we lost."

Fury glanced over at Emily who sighed in return. "We've made some mistakes along the way."

"Some very recently." Emily practically whispered as she played with the edges of the folder she was holding.

Steve looked to her folder as he took the bandages off his hands from the punching bags. "You here with a mission, ma'am?"

"I am." She told him with a polite nod as she fidgeted a bit more with the folder.

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury told him.

Steve looked up at that, and Emily slowly handed him the folder. He sat down as he opened the folder up, seeing a picture and report of the Tesseract. "Hydra's secret weapon." He whispered.

"Howard and Maria Stark fished that out of the ocean when they were looking for you." Emily told him, causing him to look up. It wasn't just that the Tesseract was found, it was that he wasn't used to his sister having the last name "Stark". He had only been awake for ten days. He was still processing. "They thought what we think. That the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy."

"That's something the world sorely needs." Fury explained, wondering if Steve was totally caught up on the world's events since World War II.

Steve handed the folder back to Emily, making eye contact with her. "Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki." He told him as he glanced to Emily. "He's not from around here."

Emily looked at him worriedly. "There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in."

"Like my great niece who looks just like my sister." Emily felt her breath catch in her throat at that. "Didn't think I knew about your daughter did you?"

"I take it you met." Emily spoke while looking down, ashamed that she had thought keeping that from him was even a good idea.

"No, but I can tell you what hell of a shock it was when I saw her out on a run."

"The world has gotten stranger than you already know." Fury interrupted.

"At this point," He laughed out, thinking of the day he saw Melody running around Central Park. "I doubt anything would surprise me."

"Ten bucks says your wrong." He told Steve as he got up and moved to the punching bags all lined up, picking one up with simple ease. "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment."

As Steve kept walking, she knew he was pissed about the whole Melody situation, but she had to protect her daughter. He had to have understood that. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know?"

Steve sighed, knowing this was going to be one huge mistake. "You should have left it in the ocean."

* * *

"Okay," Melody instructed as she watched, pushing the ear piece even further into her ear. "You're gonna wanna move a little to the left." She rolled her eyes at the way he moved. "Your other left." Tony was the smartest person she knew, but she could swear that he was the blonde and not her.

"I think I've got it, Mel." He spoke, already latching her device onto the wires.

He began to fly to the top of the water and glide through the air. "Show off." She mumbled as he turned to head back to Stark Towers.

"You're good to go on this end." He told her. "The rest is up to you two."

"You disconnected the transmission lines?" Pepper asked as she got into the picture with Melody. "Are we off the gird?"

He looked to the two with a smile. This was all he would ever need. "Stark Towers is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining _clean_ energy." He looked to Melody. "You're welcome, princess."

Melody gave him a face as Pepper talked over her. "Wow, so maybe our reactor takes over and it actually works?"

"I assume." He told her grandly. "Light her up."

The building's lights slowly began to light up, making Tony smile. "How does it look?" Melody asked in a voice of wonderment, only wishing that she would be able to see it for herself.

"Like Christmas." He told her as he turned his head to the side, admiring the building's beauty. "But with more…me."

Melody rolled her eyes as Pepper chose to ignore his comment. "We have got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press." Melody sighed as she looked to Pepper. She never asked for much when it came to her birthday, but she just wanted one night where Pepper could actually relax. "I'm in DC tomorrow. I'm working on the zoning for the next billboards."

"Pepper," Tony groaned out. "You're killing me. Remember? This is a birthday party for Christ's sake. Enjoy the moment."

"Get in here and I will." She said in a seductive voice, causing Melody's eyes to go wide. She loved that the two finally got together, but sometimes when they acted like a couple in front of her, she found it a little disturbing.

Tony landed on the pad he designed just for the Iron Man suit to be taken off of him as he walked into Stark Towers. "Sir," Jarvis announced. "Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line."

"I'm not in." He told Jarvis as the helmet came off of his head. "I'm actually out."

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting."

"Close the line, Jarvis." Tony spoke right as he got into the living room part of Stark Towers, meeting Melody with a matching smile. "I've got a very important prior engagement twenty-three years in the making." Melody gave him a warm smile, causing him to lean forward to give her a loving kiss on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Mel."

She smiled as she leaned into his kiss. "Thank you, Tony."

"It only took three months in the making." He commented as he moved past her, meeting Pepper with a glass of champagne. "But better late than never."

Melody looked back to the screen monitoring the power running the tower where Pepper and Tony were now standing. "Levels are holding steady…I think." Pepper commented as the three of them stood in front of it. Melody truly loved this present more than anything. It was the best thing they had ever gotten her. Because it wasn't about her. It was all about clean energy.

"Well, of course they are." He commented. "I was directly involved in it." Both Pepper and Melody looked to each other, rolling their eyes at the same time. "Which brings me to my next question." He turned to Pepper as he put the champagne glass to his lips. "How does it feel to be a genius?"

Pepper laughed as Melody picked her glass up from the table. "Well, I really wouldn't know, would I?"

"What do you mean?" He asked her, causing Melody to smile. She loved it when he would make her feel so much better about herself than she did. Pepper deserved it. She deserved all the praise she could possibly get. "All this came from you."

"No." She shook her head, not even going to try to take the credit this time. "All this came from," She leaned forward, putting one finger on Tony's arc reactor and the other on Melody's head. "That."

"Give yourself _some_ credit." Tony sighed out, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Stark Towers is your baby. Give yourself…twelve percent of the credit."

Melody put her champagne down and put her hands on her hips as she stared Tony down. "Twelve percent?"

"An argument can be made for fifteen." He jumped in quickly.

"Twelve percent?!" Pepper screamed out as she looped her arm through Melody's and the two began to head toward the coffee table where they could sit. "Of my baby?!"

"Well," Tony spoke as he hurried to catch up with them. "I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted all the heavy things." Melody rolled her eyes as she looked to him, going for the champagne bottle to refill her drink. "I'm gonna pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later on, aren't I?" He asked as he sat down next to the two with a joking smile.

Pepper turned to him with a smile on her face. "Not gonna be that subtle."

Tony smiled at her, hardly being able to believe he had gotten this lucky to end up with her. "Alright," Tony spoke, breaking his gaze with Pepper and looking to Melody. She furrowed her eyebrows, unsure what this was going to be. "That present was more from Pepper." Pepper threw her arms up from behind Melody because Tony and her made a promise that flying to New York and making Stark Towers, NY run on clean energy was her present. "So," He reached into his back pocket, pulling out a peach colored box, causing her to glare at him. "Happy birthday, Mel."

He moved away from her front so she wouldn't punch him and stood behind Pepper for protection from her daggers for eyes. She looked down at the box, feeling immediately saddened, knowing where it was from. It was the same jewelry store Clint went a year ago for her birthday gift.

She hadn't seen Clint in three months. It was starting to really hurt. She thought time was supposed to make wounds feel better. Well, it wasn't working for this one. When her mother revealed herself, it really made sense to her why Clint was spying on her a year ago. She knew his feelings were real then. She knew it was real when he left her a second time because he didn't want her to be in pain while he was gone on missions. It was something she loved and hated about him.

She missed him. Every part of her longed for him. Her body wanted his touch. Her brain wanted the way he would fill her in on useless information; useless information that she actually ended up using when it came to her training in SHIELD. Her soul longed for how they would talk about everything and nothing, exposing all vulnerabilities and all strengths. Her heart longed for his being; longed for him to just be in the same room as her.

She took a deep breath knowing Tony and Pepper were waiting for her to open her gift. So, she tried to pretend just the image of the box wasn't creating the sensation of daggers pressing into her heart and lifted the top off of it. Inside was a necklace with the letter "A" pendent encrusted with diamonds. She turned around with her mouth dropped. "Tony!" She yelled at him.

He put his hands up, blocking his face in mock defense. She just rolled her eyes at him and took it out of the box, twirling it so she could see every inch of it. "You could have told me." Pepper mumbled under her breath while crossing her arms, annoyed with every bit of Tony at the moment.

"Why an 'A'?" Melody finally asked, the question burning in her the second she saw it.

"The Avengers Initiative." He told her obviously. "Why else?" She smirked at him. "You got approved. I didn't. You've been spending the last three months in New York training to be a SHIELD agent-"

"I have not been training." She cut in; a hint of annoyance covered her voice. He raised his eyebrows at her, knowing she was lying to herself. "I've just been figuring out what I'm gonna do with my life." She told him slowly. He rolled his eyes, causing her to roll her eyes back. "Look, word around SHIELD is that Fury and Mom got chewed out by the World Security Council at even the idea of the Avengers Initiative. So, I hardly doubt it's even gonna be used, and in three more months, I can go home for good."

"Well," Tony spoke as he moved a piece of her long blonde bangs out from behind her ear. "Good."

She smiled at him, causing his smile to just grow brighter. Pepper's smile was the biggest, though. Ever since Melody left, there was something missing in Tony. Now that they were together again, every part of Tony was back. And nobody knew it, but almost every part of Melody was also back. She was lonely here. She hardly knew anyone, and these people were her family. They were the part that made her whole. The only one that was missing was Clint.

"Sir," Jarvis interrupted, tearing them all out of the moment. "The telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten."

"Stark," Coulson's voice came through the telephone, resting on the table. "We need to talk."

Tony picked the phone up with an eye roll, putting it up to his face. "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."

"This is urgent."

"Then leave it urgently." Melody gave him an annoyed stare, knowing these were the people she worked with he was talking to, trying to get ahold of her. Suddenly, the elevator door opened, causing them all to turn around. Standing there was Coulson with an unamused face, the phone still to his ear. "Security breach."

"Mr. Stark." Coulson spoke with a professional smile.

Tony simply smiled a professional smile back as Pepper and Melody stood up to greet him. "Phil!" Pepper told him happily, excited to see him since she hadn't seen him in so long. "Come in!"

"Phil?" Tony questioned as he walked inside.

"I can't stay." He told the two.

"Uh," Tony spoke as he jumped up, following the two. "His first name is 'Agent'."

Melody turned to him with an annoyed face, but as she spoke, she addressed Coulson. "Come in." She turned back to Coulson with a happy smile. "We're celebrating."

Tony's smile grew wide as he looked at Coulson, but only sarcastically. "Which is why he can't stay."

Coulson put his hand on Melody's face, smiling at her as he pulled her head in, planting a kiss on the top of it. "Happy birthday." That's the one thing that hurt him the most about this whole situation. This all happened on her birthday. Everything terrible was happening on her birthday and she didn't even know it yet.

"Thank you." She told him with a bright smile. As Coulson stared at her, the more he thought about how much she didn't deserve this.

He shook his head, pulling out two separate electronic files, giving one to Tony and the other to Melody. "I need you two to look these over. As soon as possible."

Melody took hers without question even if she was confused about it, but Tony just looked at the file in Coulson's hands. "I don't like being handed things."

"That's alright," Pepper told Coulson with a shrug. "Because I love being handed things." She took the file from his hands as she handed him her champagne glass. "So, let's trade." She ended up taking Tony's champagne glass and gave him the file. "Thank you."

He looked to Pepper with a sigh, then back at the files, then back up at Coulson, looking like a small child in all of those looks. "Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other...Thursday."

"This isn't a consultation." He told him formally.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Both Tony and Melody turned to her sharply, trying to make her remember that she wasn't supposed to know about this. "Which I know nothing about."

"Mom and Fury got chewed out by the World Security Council for this idea." Melody told Coulson in a confused voice as she followed Tony to the nearest area where they could look at their files. "It was totally scrapped."

"I didn't even qualify." Tony spoke, sounding more offended than anything.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper clarified to Coulson.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know." Pepper told Coulson, causing Melody to smile.

"Yeah," She called out to them. "That we all know."

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Melody looked back to Coulson, wondering what had happened. Something was up, but no one was telling her.

"Whatever." Tony responded in an uninterested tone. "Miss. Potts," Tony called out, signaling for her to join them. "Got a sec?" Pepper looked to Coulson, putting a finger up to tell him to wait. She jogged over to the two as they got their files ready to display. "You know, I thought we were all having a nice little family moment."

"I was having twelve percent of a nice little family moment." She bit back sarcastically, causing Melody to smile.

Tony gave her an annoyed gaze as Pepper looked back to Coulson, but Melody continued looking through the files. "This seems pretty serious. Phil seems pretty shaken."

"How did you notice?" Tony asked when something else occurred to him as he looked up at her urgently. "Why is he Phil?"

"What is all this?" Pepper asked as Tony looked back at Coulson with a worried face.

"This is," Melody began, focused on the Captain America part of it all, not knowing how to explain any of this. "This."

With the wave of a hand, all of the different portions of the files showed up above them in a hologram. The three of them looked around at all of the Avenger's footage of fighting and all their profiles showing all of their skills in awe. Melody looked over at the last profile, taking a deep sigh. As if today wasn't enough of a reminder. "Clint." She whispered out.

"I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight." She spoke in a panicked voice, realizing this was going to be a lot bigger than anyone anticipated.

"Tomorrow." Tony corrected, remembering what she had told him earlier.

"You have homework." She told him as she looked around, still shocked about all the profiles.

"Well," Tony spoke as he turned to her. "What if I didn't?"

Melody's eyebrows furrowed, her eyes still focused on Clint's profile. "If you didn't? You mean if you finished?"

When Melody looked to the two, she saw Pepper's seductive face. Melody let out a nervous laugh, feeling very uncomfortable. "My cue to leave." She hurried away from them just in time for Pepper to put her mouth in Tony's ear. "Coulson, tell me you've got a reason for me to leave."

He looked to her with a slight smile. "Your mother wants you on the SHIELD helicarrier first thing in the morning."

"Thank god." Melody whispered as she headed towards the elevator. She stopped, looking back before getting on the elevator. "What's a helicarrier?"

"You'll see." He told her with a shrug which she had to shrug to. She had gotten used to the SHIELD secrets.

"Do you drive past the airport, by chance?" Pepper asked as she hurried to the two before they could get on the elevator.

"I can drop you." Coulson told her as the three got on the elevator, Melody taking out the box her necklace was in from her back pants pocket, admiring it.

When she looked up, Pepper and Coulson were talking about the cellist he had been seeing, but that was all background noise. She looked to Tony who had picked up the hologram Tesseract from the different profiles. Tony looked to her with his thinking face on, and Melody met his thinking face with hers. Something was really going down with SHIELD. The Avengers Initiative was happening. A rejection was revoked. That never happened with SHIELD. Just as the elevator doors closed, their thinking faces turned into faces of fear. Fear that this was going to be the biggest thing they would ever have to face. Fear that something terrible could happen to either of them at any moment. Fear that this was something bad.


	3. Truth

_**I'm sorry if this chapter kind of drags and for the late night update. I just had to get this finished. And I'm probably going to be super tired for this double I have to work tomorrow, but whatever. That's what coffee's for! Enjoy!**_

Melody took a very silent plane ride to the SHIELD ship in the middle of the ocean. She didn't know what it was, but all the SHIELD agents had refused to talk to her. But they didn't know if she knew what happened to Clint, and if she didn't, they didn't want to bring it up and risk Supervisor Emily Carter yelling at them. So, they decided to make it a silent plane ride, thinking of nothing else and pitying her more than they had ever pitied anyone.

Melody didn't know much what was going on. She was on a ship, that was obvious, and she knew Clint would be the one sent to get her. She took a few steps toward the edge to look at the ocean when someone tapped her shoulder. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself to see Clint again, but when she turned around, Emily was standing there. Her smile vanished as she looked to her with a confused face. "Mom?" She didn't mean to sound rude, but she really wasn't expecting this.

Emily gave her a warm smile back, wondering how she was going to tell Melody all of this. "Hi, sweetie." That was the one thing she had thought about for the past few days. How she was going to tell her all of this. "And happy late birthday."

Melody smiled at her, trying to hide her disappointment. She had grown to love her mom even if their relationship was rocky at first, but she really wanted to see Clint. "You already called me to tell me that."

"Yeah," She spoke as she put her arm around her daughter, trying to appreciate as much closeness as they could get before Melody started hating her. "Well, I still feel bad that I couldn't make it."

Melody's eyebrows furrowed, realizing that Emily was being overly nice to her. It was the nice you gave your child after their hamster died and you hadn't broke the news yet. "So," Melody began in a joking tone. "Am I ever going to find out why I'm here?"

Emily let out a nervous laugh, causing Melody to turn her head to the side. She had never seen her mother this afraid of her. It made Melody wonder what was actually happening here. "Soon. I need you to meet some people for me."

* * *

Clint's first night with Loki, his brain was torturing him. When he tried to sleep, he tried to get through to the controlled part of him. He spilled memories of SHIELD and Melody into his head. He made himself see that he was doing wrong. He tried to fight off this control so bad, but this was magic. This was something he wasn't trained for. And he was forced to go crazy in his own mind.

While he tried to sleep, he gave himself a twisted memory of Melody. It was something that hadn't happened, something he had just imagined. But he knew if he had this picture of Melody in his mind, it would pain him, and his controlled self wouldn't harm her because he would recognize that pain.

He pictured Melody laying on the ground, blood splattered all over her body with arrows puncturing different portions of it. He ran to her, holding her in his arms as she let out painful ragged breaths. "Clint." She whispered out in a pained voice as she held her insides together by her hands. "How could you?"

Clint only held onto her tighter, looking at every inch of her, never feeling more pain in his life. "I'm sorry." He whispered back to her. "I didn't mean to." He shook his head, seeing her eyes grow heavy. "He made me." Melody was struggling to say more, but her eyes only continued to get heavier. "Melody," He pleaded out as the first tear fell. "Please don't. I can fix it. I can make it better." It was too late, her body sunk further into his grasp and she let out her last breath as her eyes shut. "No." Clint whispered as he shook her. "Melody?" Nothing happened. She was so cold. "Melody?!" There was nothing more he could do. She was dead in his grasp from something he had done, and there was nothing he could do to push this thought away.

"MELODY!" Loki began to look around at this random screaming. It had seemingly come from nowhere. "MELODY!" It was nighttime. All of them should have been asleep, yet there was someone screaming at the top of their lungs. "MELODY!"

People began to come out of their rooms and sleeping areas, hurrying to Loki. "Selvig," Loki called out once he saw them as he put his hands to his ears, absolutely done with this screaming. "What the _hell_ is that?"

"Oh," Selvig spoke as he looked down the hallway where the screams were still coming from. "Melody Barnes is Clint Barton's girlfriend." Loki looked to him with an interested face, realizing this was something he could use against the archer if he needed to. "He's probably having a dream about her."

Loki looked back down the hall as Clint's screams continued. Clint probably didn't realize it, but while he was trying to protect Melody from himself, he was setting her up for a lot more danger from Loki. "Interesting."

* * *

Steve got off of the plane he arrived in with Coulson as Natasha Romanoff went towards the two. "Agent Romanoff," Coulson began while nodding to her before glancing to his hero. "This is Captain Rogers."

"Ma'am." He acknowledged with a polite nod.

"Hi." Natasha told him with the best smile she could manage. She looked over at Coulson, giving him a professional nod. "They need you on the bridge."

He nodded right back with no other greeting. "See you there."

Steve looked back and forth at the two as Coulson began to walk off, hardly believing that was the only conversation they had. Times had changed, and the more time he spent in this century, the more it became clear to him how different average life had become. "It was quite the buzz around here when they found you in the ice." Natasha commented as they walked together. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon." She looked to him with a wider smile than before. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

Steve looked to her, smiling slightly at how big he was even if it had been seventy years since he had been living. "Trading cards?"

"They're vintage." Natasha told him with a shrug. "He's very proud."

The two began to approach a man who was awkwardly standing, avoiding becoming too close to people from fear of "hulking out". "Dr. Banner!" Steve called out, recognizing his picture from the profile he looked over before deciding to join.

He moved to the two, also recognizing Steve from his profile. "Oh, yeah. Hi." He began to shake his hand, but Steve would never know how much this had meant to Bruce. What happened to him happened to him because he was trying to model what made Steve Captain America. He was practically his muse. He looked him up and down, hardly being able to believe he was real. "They told me you would be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube." Steve told them as they broke the handshake.

Bruce let out a slight laugh. "Is that the…only word on me?"

Steve simply met him back with a smile. He was still a person even if he saw himself as a freak. "The only word I care about." Bruce smiled, happy that they were seeing him as him and not the monster.

"Well, well, well," Natasha sang out in her classic seductive voice, causing them both to turn to see who she was taking to. "Look who decided to show up."

Melody rolled her eyes at the spy who was slowly starting to turn into a friend. "Bite me."

The light was created a glare so Steve couldn't see her that well until she joined them in the shade of one of the wings of the plane. When he saw her, his mouth dropped. He had seen a glimpse of her, but never full on. She looked exactly like Maria. It was oddly haunting. Every bit of her looked like his baby sister, causing him to give her a sad smile. "Steve." Melody spoke from wonderment as their hands clapped together in a handshake. "Steve Rogers." Her eyes were wide with shock at the fact that she was meeting _the _Captain America. She let out a nervous laugh, wishing her mother had given her some heads up. "Captain America."

He nodded and they continued to shake hands, reveling in their shock as Natasha, Bruce and Emily watched with amusement. "You're Melody Barnes. My sister's granddaughter. Bucky Barnes's granddaughter." He got a little saddened, knowing Bucky never met his son or granddaughter. But damn, he couldn't take his eyes off her. There was no difference in appearance between Maria and Melody. "You look just like-"

"Maria Stark." She finished for him with a shrug. "I get that a lot."

They finally let go of their hands and Melody looked to Bruce, her mouth just dropping again, plagued from shock. She had met tons of celebrities, movie stars and models, but she had never met a relative that she couldn't believe was alive and a scientist she admired before everyone knew him as "The Hulk". She leaned forward, shaking his hand with the same intensity and smile. "Bruce Banner. It really is an honor."

He let out a slight laugh because she wouldn't realize how much of an honor it was for him to meet her. This was one of the two people who had developed Iron Man. "Not as exciting as meeting your super soldier great uncle, I assume."

She nodded in agreement, but then she realized what she was saying as his eyebrows raised. "No." She said quickly while shaking her head. She turned back to Steve, realizing again what she was saying. "I mean," Natasha let out a small laugh at how much Melody was screwing up, ending up with Melody giving her a deep glare before she turned back to Bruce with a smile and a shy laugh. "I'm a big fan, Dr. Banner."

He gave her a little laugh at how cute she was about all of this. Now he knew why everyone fell in love with her. "About what exactly?"

"Gamma radiation of course." She told him with a shrug, causing Bruce's smile to grow. She was like Steve. She saw him as a person. Not the monster. "I'm obsessed. I've studied your work at least fifty times." He smiled, impressed with her, but Melody smiled from how much of a fool she was making of herself. "And now I sound like some fan girl."

Both Bruce and Steve laughed. She may have looked like Maria, but the two were completely different. Maria was so calm and cool while Melody was hyper and giddy. It was a change, but it was a nice change. "It's nice to meet you, Miss. Barnes." Bruce finally spoke back as he let go of her hand with a slight laugh. Melody rolled her eyes at herself with a slight laugh at the fact that they were shaking hands for that long.

Melody looked to Steve with that bright smile, making Steve smile back. Damn, he was under her spell just like that. He would do anything for this girl and he was going to spoil the hell out of her as it was his right as the uncle. "Oh my gosh," She spoke as her eyes grew wide. "This must be so strange for you."

"Well," Steve spoke with a shrug as he looked to the men who were jogging in their PT attire. "This is actually kind of familiar."

"Uh, guys," Natasha spoke. When they turned around, Emily was gone, causing Melody to turn her head to the side slightly. "You may wanna step inside in a minute." She looked back and forth at all of them. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

Everyone began to run around, trying to get things ready, causing confusion from the three newbies on the ship. They began to move forward as they looked around. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked in a shocked voice.

"Really?" Bruce laughed out. "They wanted _me_ in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

The three of them went to the edge of the ship with wonderment on their faces right when a motor came out of the water. Melody began to chuckle a little as she watched all the other motors come out of the water. "Helicarrier." She laughed out. "It's an aircraft."

They slowly began to rise, proving Melody's theory, Steve looking at her in wonderment. She was just as smart as Maria. The three began to step back the higher in the air they rose, causing Bruce to laugh out. "No, no. This is much worse."

She looked to him, laughing slightly before looping her arms through theirs. "Come on." She laughed out as they began to follow Natasha inside.

Once they got in, Melody took her arms from them and looked around in wonderment at the place. SHIELD would just continue to surprise her. They walked into the main working room where they stood on an upper level from all the computers and workers. On that upper level, there was a conference table under the SHIELD logo which had a perfect view of all the workers and their work. Melody and Steve looked around, impressed with all of them, but Bruce just felt trapped.

Fury and Emily stood at a wing in the upper platform, surrounded by screens, watching everyone work. "We're good, sir." Maria Hill turned around to tell Fury. When Melody saw her, she got an instant smile on her face. Yes, Maria was constantly cold, but Melody really liked her. She had really helped her out during her SHIELD training and Melody felt like she owed her for that.

"Good." Fury told Maria with a nod. "Let's vanish." Melody looked out the window, realizing she couldn't even see the ship anymore. She shook her head with a slight smile. SHIELD was good. She'd give them that.

Fury and Emily turned around to face Steve, Bruce and Melody. "Avengers," Fury told them with a polite nod.

Melody clicked her tongue while pointing to him, still getting used to being called an "Avenger". It was weird. She took a seat next to Bruce, pulling her knees to her chest as she looked to them both, but Steve was still looking around in wonderment. Steve then moved to Fury, pulling out a money clip and handing him ten dollars. Melody turned her head in confusion, but Fury and Emily simply let out a slight laugh.

Fury moved toward Bruce and Emily, Fury stopping at Bruce first, putting his hand out to shake it. "Doctor," Bruce took his hand, shaking it slightly, worried about the simplest mistake he could make. "Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for asking nicely."

When he got to Melody, he realized that she was looking all around, only resulting in a frown from her. That's when Fury realized it. She _still _didn't know. "Miss. Barnes," Fury addressed, causing her to stand up and take his hand. "Really, thank you for coming."

Melody's eyebrows furrowed at that with a small smile spreading across her face. Everyone was being strangely nice to her. "No problem, Fury, really."

When Fury turned around to face Emily, he gave her an upset look which Emily just gave a pleading look to. She planned on telling Melody, she was just putting it off because she knew this was going to be the hardest talk she was ever going to have with her daughter.

"So," Bruce interrupted, confused with their whole interaction just like Melody was. "How long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're clear." He told him with a shrug.

"Where are you with that?"

Fury gestured to Coulson who was standing close by. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Everyone seemed to be following but Steve. "Cell phones. Laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Natasha stood there while crossing her arms with a sigh. "We're still not gonna find them in time."

Melody looked down at one of the computers and she thought she saw a picture of Clint. But before she could confirm her thoughts, it passed. She let out a deep sigh, looking around again. Why the hell wasn't Clint out here? He was an Avenger. He was approved. He should be here with all of them. Unless…he wasn't here. "You have to narrow your field." Melody whispered, almost absentmindedly. She was speaking for them and herself. Her brain began to narrow down all the possible scenarios that would tell her where Clint was.

"She's right." Bruce agreed as he moved closer to Fury. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

Fury folded his arms, becoming interested. "How many are there?"

"Call every lab you know." Bruce told them while taking off his jacket, knowing he was going to have to get to work. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." Fury nodded approvingly. He knew this guy was the man for the job. "Do you have someplace for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff," She nodded to Fury, causing Melody to clench her teeth. If anyone knew about what was happening to Clint, it was her. "Would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"

"You're gonna love it, Doc." She told him as they passed Melody. "We've got all the toys."

"Wait," Melody called out while shaking her head. They all turned to her, the two stopped walking, even some agents who were working away on their computers turned to look at them. "No one leaves until I find out where my boyfriend is."

Natasha's eyes grew as wide as they could possibly go before turning to look at Emily. "You didn't tell her before she got on board? Seriously?"

Emily gave her an annoyed face before turning back to Melody who was staring at her like she didn't even know her mother anymore. "Honey," Emily began as she moved towards her.

"Mother?" Melody spoke in an accusing voice. "Where is my boyfriend?"

"Technically," She began cautiously. "You two aren't together at the moment."

"Okay," Melody began in a ticked off voice. "Where is the love of my life?" She corrected at her mother angrily as Steve moved towards everyone, having no idea what was going on. "You know, the one person I can't live without? We're the same height, and I don't want to wear heels around him and make him feel short, but he doesn't mind because he knows I have issues with my height. He's got brown hair, piercing blue eyes, very in shape and he loves me with every inch of his wasted heart. Sound familiar? Because I just described Clint Barton, a SHIELD agent, approved for the Avengers Initiative who is not currently on this ship."

Melody was staring daggers at her mother, hoping that would make her stop beating around the bush. She was causing a scene and even though her mother had been absent from her life for a few years, she still knew that she hated scenes. "Melody," Emily began in a hoarse voice like she was about to cry. "I wanted to tell you before, I just…didn't know how."

Melody bit on her lip, starting to see how serious this all was. "How bad is it?"

"Loki," Natasha began, causing Melody to turn around. She looked to Emily who just pleaded to her with her eyes. If Emily wasn't going to tell her, she was. This had gone on long enough and if anyone needed to know about what happened to Clint, it was her. But once she took a look at Melody, she knew why Emily took so long to tell her. That face was absolutely heart breaking. "He took control of Clint and is using him as his personal henchman."

Natasha looked down right after she was done talking, and Emily began to move towards her daughter. Melody just continued to stand there, biting her lip, trying to stop the tears from emerging. "Melody," Emily began. Melody just rolled her eyes, hating herself for everything that had ever happened with Clint. Hating that she wasn't there for him when it happened. "He was holding this when it happened." Emily pushed a picture into her hand even if she refused to look at her mother.

When she looked to the picture, she had to bite her lip even harder. Just the look at it began to plant even more tears in her eyes. She never noticed this, but the way Clint looked at her while kissing her cheek. He was already in love with her if either of them didn't know it yet. "Damn it." She whispered to herself as she looked to the blood at the corner of the photo.

Emily tried to go to her, but Melody wasn't going to have any of it. She pushed her way past all of them trying to comfort her because right now, she didn't need that comfort. She needed to process and grieve. She found the most isolated place in the whole ship, sat down with the picture held to her chest and let out all the tears she had felt poking at her pour out. She felt like she was breaking from the inside. The only way for her to get fixed was to be hugged back together by Clint. It was the only way. He was the only solution, the only person that would make her feel any better…and he was gone.

The others continued to stand with their heads down, feeling sorry for her. She didn't deserve to find out like this. Not where she had to pry the information no one really wanted to tell. "Who is Clint Barton?" Steve asked slowly, causing all of them to turn to him.

Emily sighed as her hand rested on her stomach and the other hand raised up to him. "It's complicated."

"That's her boyfriend." Natasha told him while looking at Emily harshly. Emily gave her an annoyed stare which Natasha only shook her head to. "I can't believe you." Emily simply rolled her eyes, trying not to feel this guilt bubbling up in her whole body.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Steve asked slowly, continuing to watch where she had run off to. Just seeing her run off like that was breaking his heart. He had already fallen for his great niece and he wanted to do anything to make her feel better. She was his only family left. He wanted to protect it.

Natasha sighed, like Steve, still looking to where she had run. "I don't think she'll ever be okay again." And Natasha meant it. This Avengers Initiative wasn't going to be easy on any of them. None of them were going to be okay ever again.

* * *

All of Loki's minions were running around, trying to get everything ready for him. "Put it over there." Dr. Selvig instructed to some of the workers. He turned around to Clint who was messing around with a tablet he had gotten. Selvig began to laugh happily, amazed with everything they were doing here. "Where did you find all these people?"

"SHIELD's got no shortage of enemies, doctor." He spoke blandly. Like an agent. Loki was right about the heart, but he was showing none of that now. It was shoved down into the darkest parts of him, not to come back for a while. He picked the tablet up, showing it to Selvig. "This what you need?"

He looked to the tablet quickly and nodded. "Yeah. Iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get a hold of."

He glanced up at him from the tablet, still with no expression. "Especially if SHIELD knows you need it."

When Selvig looked up again, he saw Loki. This was someone he was now forced to adore. He moved to him with a happy smile, willing to do anything he had asked. "The Tesseract is showing me so much. It's more thank knowledge…its truth."

"I know." Loki told him with a bright smile. He looked over to Clint, becoming interested, thinking about last night all over again. "Agent Barton, this whole Melody situation isn't going to get in the way, is it?" Clint looked up at him, furrowing his eyebrows. The part of his brain that knew he was in control was cursing the god for even saying her name. "I want you to do something for me then."

Clint looked up at him, nodding even if the other part of him was screaming. "Of course."

Loki shrugged, giving him a smile. "Kill her."

Even the controlled part of Clint had to stop. The dream he made himself dream last night made him understand that if Melody was dead or hurt, he was in pain. "What?" He asked him again, hoping it was all just a misunderstanding.

"Kill Melody Barnes." He told him casually. "The first chance you get."

Clint nodded, knowing he couldn't say no even if every fiber in his body was telling him to. He was distracted. Every bit of him. He almost forgot what he was going to tell Loki in the first place. "I…uh…found my next target." It was hard to even speak.

"What do you need?" Loki asked instantly, taking some joy in watching him like this and knowing he had this much control over him.

Clint moved to a nearby truck, pulling out his bow. "I need a distraction." With the flick of his wrist, his bow unfolded as he looked back to the god. "And an eyeball."

* * *

The bedroom situation was first come, first serve, and there were people who had been on this ship for days. The only good thing was that they weren't treated like VIPs, but like normal people which is what Melody had wanted in the first place. They had blankets and pillows laid down on the floor of their work room, sleeping the best they could, both boys giving Melody and Natasha the two couches.

Melody was currently suffering from a nightmare. She was rocking all over the couch, her mind switching from thoughts of Obadiah to Ivan. From the attack in Malibu where she was shot to when she was forced to become Iron Man in Monaco. All the times she was nearly killed were passing through her like a sharp knife, disrupting her sleep until she woke to herself letting out a scream.

She let out long gasps as she sat up on her couch, trying to let it register that all of this was just a dream. The door suddenly opened, causing her to jump and gasp. Clint came running in, looking to her with a concerned face. "What's wrong?" He asked out of breath like he was scared for what was going to happen to her.

She shook her head, taking deep breaths still, surprised that he was actually here. "I was having a nightmare."

He gave her a sad smile, leaning against the wall, his face only getting sadder. "I can get those sometime too."

Melody smiled, happy that Clint was always someone who would look after her. As Clint turned around, her face turned into one of fear. She had to hold onto Clint for as long as she could. "Clint!" She called out more urgent than she wanted it to sound. He turned around, only wanting to please her with anything she requested. "Can you stay with me?"

His face softened even more, but not in a loving way, in a way that he would want to do anything to make her feel better. "Of course."

He hurried to her and she lifted the blanket up, feeling her sink further into the couch. When he laid down next to her, she naturally fell into his chest and his hands wrapped around her protectively. This was the one time she truly felt safe on this ship. With Clint. Clint was the only one here that she truly trusted to take care of her. And, he felt like home.

Melody's eyes slowly opened and she quickly began to realize that it was all a dream. She felt like crying until a voice interrupted her thoughts. "Can't sleep?"

When she looked up, she saw Steve. He was sitting up on his blanket, looking at her with concern. Melody could only shake her head, still trying to fight this sadness. "I was having a nightmare."

Steve studied her, knowing this wasn't just about having a nightmare. This was about Clint. "You gonna be okay?"

Melody had known Steve for less than a day, but he already held so much love for her, and she trusted him. She had already trusted him so much. She couldn't lie to him. It was impossible. She shook her head as she bit her lip, feeling every bit of her breaking down from how hard she was trying to hold herself together. Breaking from how strong she was trying to be. Her shoulders began to tremble as tears fell down her cheeks.

Steve stood up immediately, hurrying to sit next to her and wrap her in his arms. He has…_had_ a sister. One that looked just like Melody. He knew what to do. He knew that all she needed was someone to hold her. Not anyone to tell her it was going to be okay when it wasn't. She just needed someone to make her feel safe. And only a few people in this world could make her feel safe. Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Clint, and now Steve.


	4. Germany

Everyone watched with a confused face as Melody and Steve shared a nice cup of coffee together and conversation. It was like Melody was completely cured. She wasn't moping. She was just being her usual self. But Melody knew how to hide her emotions. That was part of her SHIELD training that she loved the most. So, inside while she was breaking and not knowing what to do, the outside was giddy, happy Melody.

Emily hadn't said a word to her daughter since the big reveal, and Melody hadn't even looked at Emily. She was still upset, and Emily still felt guilty. Her only hope was that Melody wouldn't hold this over her head forever. And that she would come around. Eventually.

Coulson had joined Steve and Melody, causing them to smile, happy to get him in on the conversation as well. Natasha simply watched from the sidelines as Bruce buried himself in his work in the lab, wanting to be as far away from people as possible. Especially all the Avengers if they were the world's only hope.

"So," Coulson began awkwardly. "I have a question to ask you, Captain." Steve looked over to him, ready to hear what he had to say, Melody also. "Can you sign my Captain America trading cards?"

Melody had to bite down on her lip to keep from the laughter bubbling in her throat. She knew it was going to come up eventually. He went total fan girl when he came out of his sleep while Melody went into her freak out mode. "Uh," Steve began, Natasha's words ringing through his head again. "Sure." He forced a smile, feeling slightly awkward about all of this. "I'd love to."

"I mean," Coulson cut in embarrassingly as Melody glanced over at Steve, the two sharing a slight smile before looking back to Coulson. "If it's not too much trouble."

"No, no." Steve assured him. "It's fine."

They let a silence pass over them, but Coulson clipped that silence. "It's a vintage set. It took me a couple years to collect them all." Melody sat back in her chair as she put her cup of coffee to her lips. This had to be the funniest thing to happen on the helicarrier. How do you beat this? Coulson was so serious when it came to his job, but in front of the Captain, he was swooning. "Near mint, slight foxing around the edges - "

"Got a hit." They all looked over to the computer where the man was working from. Melody was the first person to jump up and climb over to rail separating her and the computer. "Sixty-seven percent match." Melody leaned against the desk next to the computer, studying it. "Wait, cross match seventy-nine percent."

The image began to focus, giving her a full picture of Loki. She let out a deep sigh of anger. She had never met this guy before, but she already wanted to kill him. "Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany." Melody read off the screen before anyone could look at it. "28 Canning Strasse."

"He's not exactly hiding." The agent controlling the computer spoke.

"Captain, Barnes," The two of them looked to Fury who was looking to the two urgently. "You're up."

"Barnes," Emily spoke, causing Melody to turn to her. "You're on Barton." Melody simply nodded. She was going to respect this woman as her supervisor, but she just wasn't ready to talk to her as her mother yet.

"You're gonna need someone to fly you in." Natasha spoke as she moved forward.

Melody smiled a little bit. "Anyone gonna say 'Avengers Assemble'?" Everyone turned to look at her with an unamused face, causing Melody to sigh while looking down. "Okay, that wasn't a good one." No one looked away from her, surprised that she could come up with something that failed that bad. "Let's just get to Germany." Melody walked off, causing everyone around to crack a small smile before following her.

Melody made it into her own readying room, closing the door behind her. She looked to her new suit. The tight dark violet suit just like the others with the SHIELD logo over her heart. She sighed as she took it off its hanger while looking to her matching combat boots and utility belt. "Time to break this baby in."

* * *

There was a classy party going on inside the building. Melody could hear the music pouring out the walls as she snuck around back. She took it slow, knowing Clint was a much better spy than her and he could pop out at any time. She looked around the corner, seeing one of the guards walking back and forth. No one knew that SHIELD was getting involved on this. So, these guards could take her as a threat at any time. "I am so not trained for this."

Right after that, an arrow went whizzing through the air, knocking one of the guards to the ground. Melody sighed, knowing what she had to do even if she didn't really want to. It was time to face her boyfriend and show him all the training she had done since she had last seen him. Another guard went down from the top of the building, causing Melody to jump into action.

She snuck up on the other two people with Clint, hitting one right in the neck, causing him to fall down instantly. The other one was more prepared. He turned around, put the gun on her, but she just grabbed it from him, pointing it right in his direction. "Sure you wanna do that?" He pulled a knife from his side pocket, going right for her, but she just kicked him in the middle of his arm, breaking it instantly, sending him down in pain.

When she looked back up, she saw Clint stringing his bow up right in front of her. "I don't want to do this." He told her.

She shrugged. "Then don't." She spoke as she dropped the gun. "Take me hand to hand."

He looked to her, one part of his brain screaming to break out of this spell and the other part remembering Loki's words. He dropped the bow as he stared up at her, ready to take her down. Clint screamed at every inch of himself as he swung towards her. She simply dodged it, kicking him in the middle of the leg, sending him down on his knee.

He got right back up, though, taking her by the arm and twisting it back. She grunted, but responded with kicking him in the leg again. Clint hit her in the mid back, causing her to let out a cry and a chance for him to push her to the knees. She felt like she was about to lose this fight, but then with her free hand, she jabbed him in the ribs, freeing her legs so she could kick him in the chest.

Clint staggered back, letting go of her arm. "Clint," Melody tried as he looked up at her with an angry face. "You don't have to do this." Clint looked down at the bow on the ground then back up at Melody while the other part of his brain was cursing every bit of him for that thought even running through his head. "Come on, I _know_ you are in there."

He quickly picked up the bow, stringing it up, causing Melody to dive for her gun. Clint aimed for her on the ground, but somehow, the uncontrolled part of his brain took over, causing his arm to jerk to the right when he let go of the arrow. Melody picked up the gun, but Clint just kicked her in the head.

Melody looked up as he moved to the lock pad at the front door. She blinked a few times, hardly able to believe that Clint had just tried to shoot an arrow at her. He really was taken over. But one thing she knew was that she couldn't stay here on the ground. She grabbed her gun and pointed it at the back of his head. Clint turned his head slightly so he could get a look at her. "You don't want to do this, Mel."

It hurt her hard the way he called her "Mel". All of his basis was there, but no emotion. "I'm not going to let you just walk away with Loki."

Clint sighed out while shaking his head. "I should have hit you harder." He turned around quickly, pulling the gun from her, the way she did to the other man helping Clint out, before using the butt of the gun to hit her in the head. She fell to the ground, leaving her unconscious, but as Clint looked at her, a part of him got out from the hold. "I am so sorry, Melody."

* * *

The area filled with terrified people running out of the building as Loki followed with his usual swagger. The people tried to empty the street before the god could catch up with them, but they weren't fast enough. Loki morphed into his usual attire before duplicating himself around the group of pedestrians. "Kneel before me." He commanded to the people who feared for their lives, their only thought on getting out of there in one piece. They were cornered. The duplicates had trapped them, making it impossible for them to get out. "I said," He slammed his spear on the ground, causing everyone to turn to him with more fearful faces than before. "KNEEL!"

They all slowly put their hands up as they got down on the ground in front of him. Loki simply smiled at all these people in front of him on their knees. It was all he ever wanted. "Is not this simpler?" He moved toward them all, loving the fact that none of them could look him in the eye. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble of power and identity." He chuckled to himself at how terrified he made these people. That's when he knew he was meant to rule. "You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

In the middle of the crowd, one man slowly began to stand up. He was an older gentleman with a determined face. Everyone looked to him like he was either insane or brave while Loki looked him up and down like he was nothing. "Not to men like you." He told him simply with the shake of the head.

"There are no men like me." Loki chuckled out.

The man began to look at Loki almost like he pitied him, but shook his head again. "There are always men like you."

"Look to your elder, people." Loki told them with a grand smile as he began to point his spear at the man in the crowd. "Let him be an example."

With the flick of the wrist, a blast of energy went for that man, but before it could hit him, Captain America jumped in front of him with his stars and stripes, sending Loki to his knees this time. "You know," He spoke as he moved closer to the villain. "The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else," A few people around them began to stand up with a growing smile, knowing they all had the upper hand now. "We ended up disagreeing."

Loki sat up, his eyes burning with rage as he stared at the Captain. "The soldier." He began to chuckle slightly as he looked him up and down. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." He announced before a SHIELD jet flew in behind Steve with Natasha Romanoff in the pilot's seat.

With the push of a button, Natasha brought out the jet's biggest guns and aimed them at the god of mischief. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

He shook his head before sending a blast of energy that Natasha avoided and a brawl began to break out. The pedestrians scattered as Loki and Captain America's weapons clashed, causing them both to stagger back. The fight stopped when Steve ended up on his hands and knees, breathing heavily before Loki put his spear on the back of his head, pushing him down. "Kneel." Loki commanded.

"Not today." He spoke before pushing the spear out of the way and punching Loki in the face.

Suddenly, an AC/DC song came through the PA system of the SHIELD jet, causing Natasha to pull a tight smile, knowing Stark had finally arrived. He sent Loki back on the stairs with a blast of energy before moving towards him with so much confidence, bringing out all his guns for threat. "Make your move, reindeer games." Loki made his headdress disappear while putting his hands up, causing Tony to put away the rest of his weapons. "Good move."

Both Tony and Steve stood in front of Loki, breathing heavily from the fights they had to endure. "Mr. Stark." Steve finally spoke with a nod.

"Captain."

Natasha got down from the jet followed by the other SHIELD agent on board. "Let's get him tied up and on the jet."

Tony's helmet came off before he turned to look at Natasha. "Where's Mel?"

"She's trying – " She stopped once she realized she hadn't seen the blonde in a while. "Wait, she hasn't come back yet."

Tony's face got dark, realizing that SHIELD – the one organization that he expected to keep her the safest – had just lost her. "You don't know where my niece is?"

Steve then turned around, knowing exactly where she had gone. "Oh no." He whispered before taking off to the side of the building. When he got to her lying on the ground, he saw that she was trying to stand up. He stood there for a moment, letting out a sigh of relief, knowing that she was alive before running to go help her. "What the hell happened?" He demanded before helping her stand.

Tony was running after him, and once he saw Melody, he went to her other side, putting her arm around his shoulders. "I took on Clint."

"By yourself?!" Natasha scolded, causing Melody to roll her eyes. "That's when you call me."

"I handled it." She told her with an eye roll.

"Yeah," Tony began to speak sarcastically. "It really shows by that nap you were taking a second ago." Steve rolled her eyes at the guy, but he didn't see it. Steve already didn't like Tony. Not from what he saw from the media.

Melody sighed as she reached through her pocket. "You guys think that I couldn't have taken him?" She showed the three the other end of the tracking device before putting it back in her pocket. "He was supposed to kick my ass." She told them with a shrug. "How else was I going to get a tracking device on Clint Barton?"

Natasha cracked a smile, seeing Emily in her. Only Emily would think of something that genius to weave out that perfectly. Steve, he saw Maria. The clever, cunning side that was always pushed down by the science side of her brain. Tony, he saw his niece. The brilliant, resourceful niece he raised. "Melly Kelly." Tony commented with a bright smile and a shake of the head. "The original nightmare dressed as a daydream." Melody looked to him with a bright smile, finding it easier to stand. She was really happy her uncle was here now. But Steve, he was growing a root of jealousy. He would never be able to develop a relationship as deep as hers with Tony. A relationship that Tony didn't deserve.

* * *

"Ow!" Melody screamed, causing Tony to sigh while moving away from her with a disapproving face. "Will you stop that?!"

"It's a scratch. It's gonna sting when I clean it."

He tried to go for her again, but she just weaved out of his way. "Exactly!" She finally yelled to him. "It's a scratch!" She threw her hands in the air while giving Tony a sympathetic stare. "It's nothing." She grabbed his hands, looking him right in the eye before removing his first aid supplies out of his hands. "I am fine."

He gave her a worried look as she put the supplies up, knowing it was nothing, but he wanted to do something about it. "You have to be more careful." Steve looked between the two, feeling sad that this would never be him and Melody. He would never have the close family bond they had. Truly, he was feeling left out.

Melody looked back to him with an annoyed stare. "You can't protect me from everything."

"No, but I can help you with whatever you need help with." Melody looked to him with a slight smile, knowing she couldn't snap on him or be mad for long. "The only reason I'm here is to keep you safe." Melody let out a heavy sigh, appreciating the thought, but knowing she could protect herself. She wanted to show that she could do things by herself, but when everyone tried to come to her rescue, it was hard. And no one could understand that.

She stood up from her seat, moving close to the front of the ship with Natasha and the agent assisting her in flying the jet. "Has he said anything?" Fury's voice came over the walkie talkie, causing Natasha to fidget nervously, knowing that there had been talk back there, but not from Loki.

"Not a word." She spoke in her cool, calm voice.

"Just get him here." Emily jumped in, causing Melody to roll her eyes at even the sound of her voice. Tony gave her a confused look, but she waved it away, knowing she would have to tell him later. "We're low on time."

Melody, Tony and Steve turned around so they were facing Loki once again. Steve leaned into the two, but neither of them took their eyes off Loki. "I don't like it."

"What?" Tony asked with a shrug. "Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

"I don't remember it being that easy." Steve told him with the shake of the head. "This guy packs a wallop."

Melody cracked a little smile at the 40's slang and she just knew Tony was going to say something about it. "Still," Tony spoke, fighting a smile. "You were pretty spry for an older fellow." The two looked to each other, causing Melody to take a deep breath, knowing this wasn't going to end well. "What's your thing? Pilates?"

"Tony." Melody spoke in a tone that made them all second guess who the child was and who the parent was.

"Come on," He spoke with a shrug, causing Steve to give him a deep glare. "I'm just saying that he may have missed things while doing time as a Capsicle, Melody."

Melody opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off because right when Loki heard her name, "Melody?" he asked for clarification. Everyone turned to look at him as the space got completely silent, even Natasha. This was the first word he had said the entire ride, and it was Dark Violet's name. "Melody Barnes?"

Melody's eyes got wide, knowing nothing about her name had been said around Loki. So, how the hell did he know her? "Yeah." She spoke skeptically.

Both Tony and Steve moved in front of her protectively on cue. They may not like each other, but the one thing that they were going to agree on doing together was protecting Melody. Loki began to laugh with delight, realizing he had something better than what he was bargaining for. Now he knew why they were all acting weird when he took over Clint. Melody Barnes was an Avenger. "Agent Barton's girlfriend." Melody felt fear run through her body. Not fear for herself, but fear for Clint. "You know, he really loves you." She could feel herself twitching. Twitching from pain, anger and fear. "He screams your name every night in his sleep."

Melody could feel the anger running through her as she stared at him. She pushed between the two with strength that none of them saw coming. She grabbed Loki by the neck, throwing his head into the wall. "You know where Clint is?" She asked him in a threatening voice as Loki laughed at her. It was all just making her madder. She pulled his head up and then slammed it back in the wall, causing his laugh to get harder. "Where the fuck is he?!"

Steve and Tony each grabbed an arm, pulling her back as she took deep breaths, not taking her eyes off him, angrier than ever at his smile. "Stop it!" Steve demanded.

"He took over Clint!" She screamed right into his face.

"And now he knows that you care!" Tony yelled right back, trying to calm her down.

She turned back to look at Loki who was no longer smiling, but looking up at the sky while thunder and lightning took it over. "What's the matter?" Steve asked him while putting a protective hand on Melody's shoulder. Tony looked to him with wide eyes that this guy even had the audacity to touch his niece. He really didn't like this guy. Especially since his father had spent so much time searching for him. "Scared of a little lighting?"

He continued to look around the ship like he was scared, causing them all to become confused. This guy had been so big and bad just a second ago and now he was squirming over some thunder and lightning. "I'm not overly fond of what follows."

The three looked to each other again, putting aside anything that was bothering them at that moment to share their confusion. Almost instantly after, something landed on top of the jet. Hard. They both grabbed Melody's arms, trying to protect her, causing Melody to let out a deep sigh. Tony and Steve were going to be a lot trickier than she thought.

Tony began to put on his Iron Man helmet, causing Melody to wiggle out of Steve's grasp and move towards him. "Tony, don't."

He wasn't going to listen to her. He opened up the back of the jet and began to hurry to it. Melody grabbed onto Steve's forearm, from the wind and cold rain blowing in hardly. "What are you doing?!" Steve screamed to Tony as they both looked back to him.

Suddenly, a blonde haired man landed on the jet opening. He wore a red cape and a chest plate, along with armor on his legs with his long hair flowing back. He held a hammer, and Melody blinked a few times, trying to make sure this was actually what she was seeing and not from the blow to her head. Tony tried to blast him with energy, but he simply hit him with his hammer, sending Tony back into Steve and Melody.

The three were groaning on the ground while holding what hurt as Thor went forward, grabbing his brother by the collar of his shirt. Loki looked frightened, and with the swing of his hammer, the two flew off, leaving Tony, Steve and Melody clueless.

"And now there's that guy." Tony mumbled under his breath.

"Was that just who I thought it was?" Melody groaned out as she began to stand up.

"Another Asgardian?!" Natasha asked from the front.

"Not just any Asgardian." Melody spoke as she straightened herself out. "Thor."

When Steve stood up, he looked to see Tony moving to the back of the jet. "Think he's a friendly?"

"Doesn't matter." Melody began to turn her head slightly, knowing what Tony was going to do, but at the same time, she knew she had to stop it. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark!" Steve yelled out urgently. "We need a plan of attack."

He turned back to the two while Melody shook her head at him. "I have a plan. Attack."

When he flew out of the jet, Melody began to grind her teeth. "Son of a bitch." She hurried to the parachutes, strapping one of quickly while Steve followed her lead.

"Melody!" Natasha yelled out while looking back to the two, still trying to steady the jet. "Don't you dare go after Tony!"

She turned around, looking to her as Steve was still trying to strap the parachute on. A lot had changed in military weapons since he was on the scene. "I dare." She told Natasha with a shrug before jumping off the jet.

Natasha turned back to what was in front of her, gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles were turning white. When she turned back, she noticed Steve had just got his chute on, causing her to sigh. This was all getting out of hand. "I'd sit this one out, Cap."

He shook his head, looking out the back of the jet, thinking about how Melody had jumped into the air, completely fearless. "I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legend." She urged, hating to lose all the Avengers after one small little fight in Germany. "They're basically gods."

"There's only one God ma'am." He assured her while picking up his shield and heading to the back of the jet. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

Right when he jumped out the jet, Natasha turned back to the windshield, her grip just getting tighter. "Great, Iron Man, the supervisor's daughter and Captain America all jumped out of the jet I'm flying to go after Loki who was captured by Thor. What else could possibly go wrong?"

The SHIELD agent next to her, shrugged slightly. "They could all kill each other." She turned to him sharply, her eyes burning holes into his skull before he looked back to the windshield. "That was a rhetorical question." He whispered, just wishing his senior agent would stop staring at him like that.

* * *

Thor threw Loki down on a nearby rock, standing over his brother with an angry face as Loki began to laugh. "Where is the Tesseract?" Thor demanded.

Loki just continued to laugh. "Oh, I missed you too."

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!"

"You should thank me." Loki claimed as he sat up. "With the bifrost gone, how much energy did the All-Father have to muster to conjure you here?" He began to stand up as he mused. "Your precious earth."

Thor dropped his hammer, hating his brother and loving him all at the same time. He hurried to him, turning Loki to face him. "I thought you dead."

"Did you mourn?" Loki inquired like he wasn't impressed with his brother.

"We all did." As he looked to Loki, he didn't understand how he could turn on the family he once loved so dearly so quickly. "Our father – "

Loki picked up his finger, stopping him instantly. "_Your_ father." Thor moved his hands from his face, feeling the pain from him turning on his family again. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"

He tried to walk away from Thor, but Thor was determined to have Loki hear him out. "We were raised together." Loki stopped, wondering what he was going to say this time. "We played together. We fought together. Do you remember none of that?"

Loki turned to him with a frown on his face. "I remember shadows. Living in the shade of your greatness." Thor blinked a couple of times, having no idea that his brother felt this way. "I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!"

Thor simply shook his head. "So, you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" He moved towards him forcefully this time. Not as his brother. "No, the earth is under my protection, Loki."

Loki began to laugh while Thor just stared at him angrily. "You're doing a marvelous job with that." He shook his head, becoming serious this time. "The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them! That's why should I not – "

"Think yourself above them?" Thor finished for him.

"Well," Loki spoke with a shrug like it was obvious. "Yes."

"Then you miss the truth of ruling brother." He told him with a pity shake of the head while he moved closer. "A throne would suit you ill."

Loki pushed passed him angrily, hating everything Thor was telling him. He knew he could rule even if everyone thought he couldn't. "I've seen worlds you've never known about!" He turned to his brother, still fuming with anger. "I've grown, _Odin's Son_, in my exile!" Thor moved toward him, taking deep breaths, trying not to get too mad. "I have seen the true power of the Tesseract! And when I wield it – "

"Who showed you this power?" Thor cut in like the worried older brother he is. "Who controls the would be king?"

"I am a king!"

Thor grabbed him by the arms harshly while pushing him back. "Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" He softened slightly, his hands going to his face. "You come home."

Loki let out a slight chuckle, causing Thor to study every inch of his face, wondering what he had to tell him. "I don't have it." Thor pushed him back angrily while calling his hammer back to him. "You need the cube to bring me home." Loki put together for himself. "But I've sent it off. I know not where."

He brought his hammer up to Loki, trying to fight the urge to kill him. "You listen well, brother. I – "

Just then, Iron Man crashed into Thor, taking him down into the forest under them. Loki didn't even flinch. He simply shrugged. "I'm listening."

They tumbled around after Iron Man tackled Thor, destroying a few trees as they landed. When Thor stood up, Tony lifted up the facial mask, causing Thor to see this man for the first time. "Do not touch me again."

"Then don't take my stuff."

Melody landed somewhere near where they were, and she knew that by the sound of Tony's arrogant voice. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

She followed the voices, trying to figure out where they were before a fight broke out. "Uh," Tony began to look around, his brain coming up with the first sarcastic comment. "Shakespeare in the park?"

Melody rolled her eyes at that one. "Seriously, that's the best he could come up with?"

"Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" He spoke grandly.

"Couldn't even come up with a real Shakespeare quote." Melody could go on and on about how mad she was with Tony, continually finding things to pick at.

"This is beyond you, metal man." Thor spoke, somehow finding the strength to keep his cool. "Loki will face Asgardian justice."

"He gives up the cube and he's all yours." With the shake of the head, he brought his face mask down, trying to get serious. "Until then, stay out of the way." He turned around right as Melody fought through the trees to get to them. "Tourist."

She turned to see Thor bringing his arm back, causing her to sigh. "Oh no." He let go of the hammer, sending Tony back so forcefully that he ran right into a tree. "Here we go."

When she looked up, she saw that Loki was resting on a cliff, getting comfortable to watch the fight. That's when Tony sat up and blasted Thor with his energy. "Guys," Melody spoke, throwing herself in between them. "You don't have to do this."

Thor simply called his hammer, to him, summoning all the electricity he could before throwing it in the direction he had last seen Tony in. He just didn't realize that Melody was now standing where Tony was. Melody was lying on her stomach, recovering from that blast. When she began to push herself up, she let out deep, angry breaths. "All right."

She moved to the belt attached to her SHIELD suit, pulling her favorite knife. "I am sorry." Thor spoke as he began to move towards her. "I did not mean – "

That's when Melody turned around, showing for the first time her skills as Dark Violet. She threw the knife, landing it right in his abdomen, causing her to give him a little smile and pout. "Bull's-eye."

She strutted towards him on the ground, ripping the knife from his body, but Thor just grabbed her legs, pulling her down. Tony blasted him with energy, knocking him back down, and when he was down, Melody kicked him, sending him even farther away from her. That's when Tony flew in, picking Thor up and sending him flying in the air with him as Melody looked up to watch.

Tony landed him down on the ground hard right in front of Melody's feet. She pulled him up by the cape and tried to punch him, but he grabbed her fist. That wasn't going to stop her. She kicked him in the ribs, sending him staggering back slightly. He had to admit that he was impressed with this girl and that he wasn't going to let her go in fear that she would continue to hurt him.

Tony tried to punch him to get him to let go of Melody, but he did the same thing he did to Melody's fist, holding them both in his hands. He began to break Tony's armor, causing Melody to give him a worried look. Tony tried to shake him off with a blast of energy. When that didn't work, Melody turned back to Thor, only thinking of one thing to do. She kicked him in the balls as hard as possible, sending him on his knees with a nauseated face. She bit down on her lip as she looked at him. "Sorry."

He stood up quickly and head-butted her so hard she was sent back into a tree. He was still staggering from the pain in between his legs as Tony flew at him and threw him at a tree. When Thor got up, he threw Tony into the ground. Just when he was about to hit him with his hammer, Tony flew out of his way when Melody showed up behind him, plunging a dagger into his side.

He threw her off quickly, but she landed gracefully getting back up, ready to go at him again right when Tony was, but they were stopped when a shield hit Thor's hammer and flew back to where it had come from. "Hey!" They all looked to Steve in mid swing. "That's enough." He jumped down from the rock he was standing on, causing them all to put down their weapons. "Now, I don't know what you're doing here – "

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!"

They were all studying Thor with so much intensity. They had no idea what this guy was doing, but he was really starting to piss all of them off. "Then prove it." Melody looked to Steve with a confused face. "Put the hammer down."

"Uh…yeah…no," Tony told him. "Bad call! He loves his hammer!"

Thor was just tired of Tony's voice. He hit Tony with the hammer, causing him to fly back. Melody was seething with anger as she stared at Thor who was raising his hammer. "You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor began to run towards Steve so Melody run after him, but Steve put his shield up, causing the lightning from the hammer to make a huge explosion, sending everyone back, wiping out all the trees in the area.

Everyone slowly sat up, moving their shoulders around from their aching muscles. Melody looked to all of them, realizing that all this time, they should have been talking and not fighting. Melody held her body up with her arms near her back and her legs spread out in front of her as everyone else sat in a position they were comfortable in. With deep breaths, they all looked to each other, Melody deciding to be the one to speak. "Are we done here?"

_**I hope you guys liked this chapter. I hope to get into more Melody things in the next chapter. I don't think I'm good at writing action scenes. So, I'm sorry if they're not good. I'm working on improving them! Review!**_


	5. Family Issues

Everyone was deathly quiet as Loki was escorted through the helicarrier. Everyone stared at him, all feeling scared by his presence. Everyone kept a hand on their go-to weapon just in case they needed to use it. Loki, he took humor in that. As he walked by Bruce Banner, he smiled to him, knowing his plan was just waiting for him.

Emily was the only one there waiting as the SHIELD agents escorted him into his glass prison. Emily thanked each other them as he was locked in, leaving just Loki and Emily. "In case it's unclear," She spoke as she moved to the control panel nearby and began to press buttons. "If you so much as scratch that glass…" The floor under the cage opened up, sending all the wind in. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap." Loki looked down at it cautiously before looking back to Emily. "You get how that works?" She closed up the floor and gave Loki a smile before pointing at him. "Ant." She looked back to the control panel before turning her head to the smile with the same smile. "Boot."

Loki took a few steps back with a bright smile. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

Emily turned her head slightly, keeping her smile on. "Built for something a lot stronger than you."

He chuckled as he looked right into the camera he knew was watching him every second. "Oh, I've heard." All the Avengers sat around their conference table (minus Tony), watching the live feed of Loki in his jail. "The mindless beast makes play to be the man." Everyone looked to Bruce cautiously, but he just folded his arms with a heavy sigh, hating that he was being singled out. Melody simply looked to Fury with a disapproving frown, realizing he had this set up for the Hulk long before they all got together for this. "How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am_ I_?" Emily asked with a half chuckle. She moved closer to him, now serious. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun." She shook her head at him. "_You_ have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh," He spoke with a fake face of being hurt. "It burns you to come so close." Melody just continued to glare at him. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what?" He looked back to the camera, giving all the Avengers a winning smile. "A world for all mankind to share?" His smile went away, looking back to Emily. "You need to be reminded what real power is."

Emily continued to keep the glare with him before she broke into a smile. "Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something."

Loki watched her as she walked away. "Say hello to your pretty, blonde daughter for me." Emily stopped walking, freezing in her place. All of the Avengers turned to look at Melody, but Melody's eyes were just glued down on the screen. When Emily turned around to stare her daggers at him, he simply smiled to her. "I didn't know until you started speaking." He shrugged. "You've both got the same frame. The blonde hair, blue eyes, tight body. But the way you two act is almost symmetrical." His smile turned into a sad one. "Maybe that's why you two have so many problems."

Emily stood there for a moment, thinking about a lot of things she could have told him, but she decided to suck it up. He wanted a reaction, and even though that comment about her daughter made her want to claw his eyes out, she was going to keep calm. "Like I said, let me know if you want a magazine or anything because you're going to be here for quite some time."

* * *

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked sarcastically with a fake smile.

Melody let out a deep sigh as the feed went away from them. "Why is it always me?" Melody questioned as she looked to Natasha. "Why am I always being singled out by someone or something?"

Natasha looked to her with her eyebrows up. "You're a SHIELD legacy. Your uncle is Iron Man, your great uncle is Captain America, you're mother and father were SHIELD's top agents and your grandparents founded SHIELD." Melody gave her an angry face as Natasha simply shrugged. "You were born into it, hun."

Melody threw her head down on the table. Steve felt bad for her, but he knew that they had to get down to business. "Loki's gonna drag this out." Melody let out soft grumbles, causing everyone to look at her head still down on the table before all looking back to each other. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor took a deep breath before turning to them from standing up. "He has an army called the Chitauri that none of Asgard or any world known." Melody decided to pick her head up, knowing she should be listening. She threw her head back, deciding not to do anything about that one strand of hair that hung in front of her eye. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth." Maria Hill joined the group, standing in the back, trying to get too involved. "In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army." Steve, eyes locked on Thor. "From outer space." Fury and Emily were definitely right. A lot of things could still surprise him.

"So he's building another portal." Melody spoke, leaning on her elbow for support. This was all getting too weird for her. She didn't know if she should talk like she was taking this seriously or if this was a joke because she honestly didn't know how to get through all of this.

"That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce spoke, backing up her theory.

"Selvig." Thor spoke as his eyes grew wide.

"He's an astrophysicist." Fury clarified.

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some sort of spell." Natasha told him. Melody let out a sigh, looking down at the table, beginning to make a pattern on the glass just thinking about it. "Along with one of ours." Melody felt so much sadness in that moment, thinking about how he tried to kill her only a few hours ago. She could only pretend like this wasn't eating her alive, but every now and then, she showed some of that sadness. Now being one of them.

Melody noticed the silence around them because of her, causing her to clear her throat and look back up to them. She had to be strong. "I want to know why Loki let us take him." She shrugged, looking over to Bruce. "He's not leading an army from here."

Bruce shook his head at her theory. "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

Melody let out a small smile, but it went right away when she looked to Thor whose face turned into one of anger. "Take care of how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

Natasha looked up at him, face unamused. "He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor looked to her, knowing he shouldn't be defending him, but he always would. This was still his younger brother. "He's adopted."

Melody cracked a smile, realizing for the first time that she liked Thor. He would be a great addition and battle buddy. "I think it's about the mechanics." Bruce told them, but mostly Melody, knowing she would follow the most. "Iridium. What do they need the iridium for?"

Melody opened her mouth, about to answer when Tony's voice appeared instead. "It's a stabilizing agent."

They all looked to see Tony walk in with Coulson. He turned back to Coulson, talking to him about the girl from Portland he was just now learning about. Melody rolled her eyes, deciding to take over for him. "It means that the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

"No hard feelings, Point Break," Tony spoke, hitting Thor on the arm like they were friends. "You've got a mean swing." He looked over to Melody who was sitting right by Thor. He saw her face and knew immediately that something was wrong. "We'll talk later." He promised her before moving the strand of hair hanging in front of her eyes behind her ear. She gave him a slight smile which he stroked her cheek to with his finger. Steve watched Melody, that jealousy just getting deeper as Tony walked towards the computer monitors. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

Tony stood there for a moment, trying to get used to this tech which was so behind for him. He was so used to Jarvis and working with just him and Melody. And when he looked around, there wasn't much about all these people working here. "That man is playing Gallaga!" Everyone looked over to where he was pointing before looking to Tony again, realizing that whoever he was pointing at stopped playing. Steve and Thor just looked confused, not understanding what he was talking about. At all. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Melody saw that Tony kept looking back to her every time he made a joke, making her realize that he was just trying to make her laugh. She smiled at him, realizing that he really meant it. The only reason he was here was because of her.

Tony put a hand over one of his eyes and began to look around at the monitors nearby. "How do you even see these?" He asked before looking back to Fury.

He simply continued to look at Tony, Melody's smile just getting wider, trying to hide behind her sleeve. "I turn." Fury answered simply.

"Sounds exhausting." He commented before turning back to the screen nearby him.

"The rest of the raw materials," Melody spoke as she stood up and joined him around the monitors. "Agent Barton can get his hands on easily." She had to pause a moment after saying his name to fight back the tears before turning around to face the Avengers again. "The only major component he still needs is a power source."

Tony felt what he was holding in his hands begin to burn with anticipation. "A high energy density." He spoke as he pushed the hacker right under one of the computer monitors. He quickly looked to Melody to see if she had noticed and when he knew she didn't, he looked back to the rest of them. "Something to kick start the cube."

Maria Hill was eyeing them both, but mostly Tony. "When did you two become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"I minored in astrophysics in college." Melody spoke in an offended tone.

"Last night." Tony spoke with a shrug, knowing he had no background information on it and couldn't blame the woman for being curious like Melody could. "The packet. Selvig's notes. The Extraction Theory papers." When he looked up, he realized that everyone – except Melody – was looking to him with a blank face. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked while looking up at him in an annoyed face.

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Melody spoke as she moved closer to the table, standing next to Tony.

"Unless," Tony spoke as he looked to her, happy that they could actually talk science again. "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well," Bruce spoke, having both of them turning to him. The way they looked at him made him feel like the two popular kids in school were inspecting every bit of him. "If he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally," Tony spoke as he moved towards him, dragging Melody with him. "Someone who speaks English."

Steve looked around at everyone else, seeing if anyone but them were following. "Is that what just happened?"

Tony put out his hand, shaking Bruce's with a bright smile. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled." He gave him a slight smile and Melody gave him a smile, proud that he could actually give someone a compliment. Especially someone like Bruce who really needed some. "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Melody's face instantly turned into a frown from the next sentence. "Thanks." Bruce told him awkwardly. Melody shook her head at Tony who was still just smiling like an idiot.

She hit him in the arm as hard as she could causing his mouth to drop. He took a breath like he was going to start talking, but Emily began to walk in, stopping him. "Dr. Banner is only here to catch the cube." She leaned against the backs of one of the chairs, studying Melody before looking back to Tony. "I was hoping you and my daughter would join him."

Melody rolled her eyes slightly at her mother before looking to Tony and Bruce with a smile. She knew they'd make a great team together. "Let's start with that stick of his." Steve spoke as he turned to the three scientists standing side by side. "It may be magical, but it works a lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that." Emily spoke while shaking her head. "But it is powered by the cube."

"And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Melody bit down on her lip with an eye roll. She was getting real tired of this bringing up Clint thing. "Monkeys?" Thor spoke in a confused voice, catching everyone's attention. He looked so much like a real person they all kind of forgot he wasn't from earth. "I do not understand."

"I do!" They all turned to Steve who was pointing at Thor excitedly. Tony rolled his eyes while Melody gave him a slight smile and Bruce's eyes widened slightly at his intensity. "I understood that reference." He spoke in a self-conscious, but also proud voice.

Tony turned to the two scientists, ready to get as far away from Steven Rogers as possible. "Shall we play it, kids?"

"This way, sir." Bruce spoke as he and Melody led the way into the lab. The one SHEILD agent who Tony had called out earlier began to look around, making sure he was gone before pulling up Gallaga again and beginning to shoot the little spaceships.

* * *

Bruce began to run a device over Loki's spear as Melody looked to the screen nearby, showing the results of the scan. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's report on the Tesseract."

"But it's going to take weeks to process." Bruce complained as he put the device down, looking to Melody.

"If we bypass their mainframe," Tony spoke, causing the both of them to look over with hope. "And direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

Both Melody and Bruce looked to each other with wide eyes and smiles. This reminded Melody how much she had missed her uncle. "All I packed was my toothbrush." Bruce commented with a slight laugh.

Tony moved towards the two with a bright smile. He couldn't remember the last time he was in the room with two people and didn't know he was the smartest out of the three of them. "You should come to Stark Towers sometimes." Tony invited as Melody looked to Bruce with a smile, encouraging him.

"Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it. It's like candy land." She bit her lip slightly, still looking to him with a shy smile. "And I don't have to be all by myself all day every day."

Tony ran his hand from the top of her hair, all the way to the last strand of hair before kissing the top of her head. He knew she was lonely and he still felt guilty for that. "Thanks," Bruce spoke, looking back to his work, folding back into himself again. "But the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem."

Tony and Melody both looked to each other, knowing he was folding right back into himself while they were trying to bring him out. "Well," Tony spoke as he picked up a nearby tool and began to circle Bruce. "I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises."

Tony then leaned forward, poking Bruce in the side with the tool. "OW!" He yelled as he looked over to Tony who leaned in to look into his eyes.

"Tony!" Melody yelled right when she knew what he was doing.

"Hey!" They all turned to see Steve to begin to make his way into the lab. "Are you nuts?!"

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Melody looked to Steve with an apologetic stare. She was hoping he wouldn't hate her for her uncle. "What's your secret? Mello jazz? Bongo drums? A huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked angrily while moving closer to Melody. He didn't know how these two even functioned together. How could this man raise this girl?

"Funny things are." He told him with a point.

Steve's glare just kept getting deeper. Part of him wished he could have reached Melody at an earlier time and taken her away from Tony, wondering just what a life she had with his unpredictable behavior and curiosity. "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve looked over to Bruce, giving him an apologetic nod. "No offense, Doctor."

"No." Bruce spoke as he shook his head. "It's all right." He looked over at Tony. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip toeing, big man." Melody rolled her eyes at the way Tony was speaking. He had absolutely no respect for this man who had already became such a huge part of her life. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve's attitude was also upsetting her. They were such huge people that were involved in her life right now and they practically hated each other.

"You think I'm not?" Tony challenged as he moved from behind their lab desk. Melody looked to Bruce, the both of them rolling their eyes while taking a deep breath, knowing what they were both starting. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" He looked to Melody with an obvious shrug. "I can't do the equation without all the variables."

Melody stared at Tony for a moment, knowing there was doubt in both of their brains about everything SHIELD has ever done. "You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, breaking the silence.

"He's a spy." Tony spoke while looking back to Steve. "Captain, he's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets." Melody rolled his eyes as he popped a blueberry in his mouth. "It's bugging him too." He looked over to Bruce, causing Melody to look over as well. "Isn't it?"

Bruce looked at all of them awkwardly while shaking his head. "Uh, I just want to finish my work here."

"Doctor?"

Bruce looked to Steve, knowing he was one of those guys that no one could lie to. He sighed, putting down what he was working on and took off his glasses. "'A world for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Steve told him with a nod as Melody's eyebrows furrowed, wondering why this one piece stood out to him.

"Well," He spoke as he looked to Melody then pointed to Tony. "I think that was meant for the two Starks." Tony and Melody looked at each other across from the room with a nervous look. Tony extended his hand, offering a blueberry to Bruce as a form as an award for speaking more. Melody rolled her eyes at Tony's behavior, but knew that he was worried about all of this on the inside. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it's all over the news."

"Stark Tower?" Steve asked for clarification. "That big, ugly – " Steve stopped talking when both Tony and Melody turned to him with a deep glare. That building was their baby, and no matter how much Melody loved Steve, Stark Towers was her life for the last three months. "Building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor." Bruce spoke as he cleaned his glasses, but Tony and Melody didn't stop glaring at Steve. "A self-sustaining energy source." He looked back and forth from Tony to Melody. "That building will run itself for what, a year?"

Tony and Melody looked to each other, doing the math quickly in their heads before looking back to Bruce. "That's just the prototype." They spoke as one.

Tony looked over to Steve with a slight shrug. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." Melody sighed, knowing that wasn't the key issue right now. "That's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring them in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Melody looked to Bruce with a growing smile. He was brilliant for figuring that out before her. But she was also worried. Why did he figure that out before her while she was so close to SHIELD for the past three months?

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Both Melody and Steve's eyes popped out of their heads. Melody wasn't upset for his snooping, but because he hadn't told her a thing about it. He told her everything. "I'm sorry, did you just say – "

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." He looked up at Steve, the two now standing face to face. "In a few hours, I will know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He pushed his bag toward him with a slight smile. "Blueberry?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Melody asked in a small voice, causing Tony to turn around. Her eyes were down on the floor, but when she saw he had turn, her head picked up, showing him one of the most hurt faces he had seen from her. It broke his heart just to look at her.

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but Steve interrupted. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

Tony's face went from heartbroken to angry in seconds as he spun around to look at this infuriating man. "An intelligence agency that fears intelligence?" Steve simply rolled his eyes. "Historically not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up." Steve spoke, trying to get back on topic. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." He looked over to Bruce and Melody who just looked down at that. "We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following's not really my style." Tony spoke as he popped some blueberries in his mouth.

Steve sighed out as he stared at him. He knew Tony was just trying to get him angry, but he wasn't going to let him. He was going to turn it back on him. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

Tony stood there for a moment, letting that insult roll over before giving one right back. "Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit and B) not of use."

"Steve," Bruce spoke before anyone else could throw any other jab. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."

Steve looked to the door, taking a deep breath before finally speaking. "Just find the cube." He hurried out of the room and Melody looked to him with a sad face. She wished she could make him feel comfortable in this time as he did in the 40's, but she knew that wasn't possible. At least for now.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Melody let out an angry sigh as she clenched her teeth together. It was times like these where she really hated Tony. Times when he showed his arrogance. "Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

"He's doing the best he can." Melody snapped as she turned to Tony angrily.

"Melody," He laughed out. "This guy is a fossil who doesn't belong here. What is he going to contribute to the Avengers?" He shook his head at her. "Don't tell me he's got you under that innocent act he's got going on."

Melody shook her head at him, letting the silence settle in the air as Bruce looked between the two awkwardly. "His innocence isn't an act, Tony." She shook her head at him. "You still don't get it." Her face became soft as he stared at her, trying to comprehend what she was telling him. "He's twenty-six. He's not an old man. He's twenty-six." She shook her head at him. "He died at twenty-six. And now he's in this world where everyone one he knew and loved is now dead. He doesn't understand how this world works and he's scared. You wouldn't feel this way if I died at twenty-six." Tony gave her a soft face, hating that she was even putting that thought in his mind. "So he's got a lot on his plate." Melody finally spoke. "He died at twenty-six and woke up ten days ago."

"Melody," Tony spoke as he tried to go to her right after she was done talking. "I didn't – "

"I'm gonna see if anyone needs help with anything out there." She spoke as she turned around, still obviously mad with him. "Try to use style with that."

Tony watched her as she walked out of the door and hurried down the hall, her feet stomping away. As he stared, he couldn't help but wish that this entire conversation never happened. He would still have Melody on his side then. She'd still be in the room, and she'd still respect him.


	6. Melt Down

_**These are some of my favorite parts in the movie so I hope you like them!**_

Tony was still in their lab with Bruce, but ever since the fight he had with Melody, he just wasn't as productive. Bruce watched him, feeling noting but sorrow for him. He was really brought down by just a few words his niece said. But he understood. He loved her more than anything. He would feel the exact same way if Betty said something like that to him. "Steve's not really wrong about Loki." Bruce spoke awkwardly, trying to break the silence. When Tony looked up at him, he knew that bringing up Steve and Loki wasn't the best idea. "He does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an acme dynamite." He spoke with an unimpressed voice about Loki. Loki hadn't just pissed Melody off, he pissed Tony off. He cared about Clint. And when he found out that he took control of him, he wanted revenge for him and Melody. It wasn't just about saving the world, it was about saving someone he loved. "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

"And I'll read all about it." Bruce spoke as he passed a graph from his monitor to Tony's.

"Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony mumbled as he began to look through what he had across from him.

"No," Bruce spoke with a dark chuckle. "See, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve." He sighed, taking a deep breath. "It's a nightmare."

Tony stopped for a moment, thinking about what he would say to Melody if she was in this situation. He would make her feel better. Make her feel of worth. "You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." He put his finger to his chest, tapping his arc reactor before looking back to him. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now. Not just armor." He moved to Bruce, hoping to change his view on himself like Melody had done to him time and time again while he was struggling with this new thing in his chest. "It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it." Bruce argued, not thinking their situation was the same at all.

"Because I learned how."

Bruce shook his head, looking back to his work. "It's different."

Tony pushed his work aside, knowing he was acting just like Melody. He sighed, knowing that if he didn't have Melody, he wouldn't be this person. Someone who helped out. Because she made him a better person. "I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

Bruce looked to Tony, hardly believing what he was telling him. To himself, he was just a monster who needed to be stopped. "So you're saying the Hulk – the other guy – saved my life?" Tony simply stared at him, knowing he was going to break through to him…eventually. "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Save it for what?"

Tony gave him a sly smile. He wasn't going to give up on this guy. "I guess we'll find out."

Tony began to walk away with the smile still on his face. "You might not like that."

"You just might." He retorted.

Bruce stood there for a moment, thinking about everything he had just said before taking off his glasses and looking to him. "Tony," Tony looked to him and Bruce knew that Melody had brought out the best in him. She always would. "Go talk to her."

Tony smiled to him as he began to move to the door. "This is why you need to stick around through the whole thing."

Bruce chuckled to himself after Tony walked out. He turned back to his work, the smile still on his face. "I doubt that."

* * *

Melody was simply walking down the helicarrier hallways, looking for something to do or looking for a place to cool down or looking for Steve. She didn't know which one yet. Right now, she knew that she was going to walk through this ship until she found the first out of her three options.

And one of those options grabbed her by the mouth so she wouldn't scream and pulled her into the shadows of the helicarrier. Right when she was let go, she swung her fist, but the person ducked it and grabbed her fist. Melody was scared, but she knew exactly what to do. She grabbed her attacker by the neck with her free hand and slammed her into the wall, finding the light to get a good look. She just rolled her eyes when she saw who was holding her fist with a smirk on her face. "You've been practicing." Natasha purred out as she looked the girl up and down. She really had improved since they began their fighting training. She was proud.

"Nat, what the hell?" Melody spoke as she pushed her head back, releasing the hold on her neck.

"I needed your help." She spoke with an innocent shrug.

Melody threw her arms in the air. "Have you heard of asking someone for help like a _normal_ person would?!"

"That wouldn't be as fun." She complained.

Melody rolled her eyes at the spy. She swore that she was just a female version of Clint. And she didn't need two Clint's. She could hardly handle the first one. "Whatever." She shook her head at the red head. "What do you need?"

"So eager to help." Natasha commented as she studied her again, knowing something was wrong. Melody rolled her eyes. This was the worst thing about SHIELD. Everyone knew what was going on with you because everyone was trained to read body language like their first language. "I thought you were working with Banner and Stark on finding the Tesseract."

"Change of plans." Melody was frustrated and she didn't want to talk about her fight with Tony. She wanted to keep that as private as possible, but Natasha would always be able to see right through her. "My window of opportunity is slowly closing. Do you need my help or not?"

Natasha sighed, wanting to know what was going on, but at the same time, knowing she had to push her curiosity aside for now. "I'm gonna talk to Loki and I want you to go with me."

Melody blinked a couple of times. The girl had to be going crazy. There was literally a ship load of people who were more qualified than her to do this. "Why me?"

"He knows what you are to Clint." Melody bit on her lip, wishing everyone would just stop talking about it. Especially since the second it came out of someone's mouth, they looked to her with that sympathetic look she hated.

"So you want to use my emotions and relationship with Clint to fish information out of Loki?"

Natasha stood there for a moment, knowing that this could be seen as really bad. "…yes…"

Melody sighed with a shrug, knowing this was the best thing she could do with her time. "I like interrogations. Let's go."

As Melody walked past Natasha, she had to stand there for a moment, not believing that the golden Stark was actually going to help her with an interrogation. Maybe SHIELD was changing her.

* * *

Natasha and Melody slipped into Loki's holding cell without being seen by the god himself. They quietly took their places standing where they were facing his back as he circled around his cage. Loki stopped, suddenly realizing the presence of the two as he began to smile. "There's not many people who can sneak up on me."

"But you figured I would come after." Melody spoke as she looked up at him.

"After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend." Melody's eyes shifted to the spy slightly before looking back to Loki, more confident this time. "And you've brought a friend." He commented with a slight laugh as he looked over to Natasha.

"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton." Melody finally spoke that one thing that had always been on her mind, not finding the strength to look him in the eye.

Loki shrugged, knowing that he truly wanted her to suffer. "I'd say I've expanded his mind."

Melody looked up at him, feeling herself have to bite down on her teeth to keep from murdering him. "And once you've won," Melody began as she moved forward, signaling for Natasha to follow her. "Once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"

Natasha looked Melody up and down, shocked with how much she had improved since she last worked with her. "Is this love, Agent Barnes?"

Melody gave him a smirk, knowing if she was going to get through this interrogation, she had to act like Clint being gone wasn't killing her. "Sometimes."

"What about you, Agent Romanoff?"

Melody looked over to her, feeling guilty that the thought was crossing her mind. She'd be lying if she hadn't thought of it before. She studied Natasha, just wanting to know the full story with Clint and Natasha, something Clint never shed the light on himself. "Love is for children." She told him with a shrug. "I owe him a debt."

Melody didn't want to show it, but she was shocked by how quickly Natasha could blow off her best friend. "Tell me." Loki told her in an interested voice.

Natasha sighed, moving to sit down in a nearby chair as Loki did the same, moving to the back of his cage so he could sit. "Before I worked for SHIELD, I made a name for myself." Melody realized just how unimportant she was in this conversation. "I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for…or on." Melody blinked a couple of times, knowing that Natasha had done bad things for the KGB, but it didn't click to her until this moment that Natasha was also a bad person. "I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, but he made a different call."

"And what will the two of you vow to do if I spare him?"

Melody looked back up at Loki, almost forgetting he was there. She got so lost in Natasha's story. But Loki's words hit Melody. She was the youngest and being the youngest usually meant you were the most naïve. This was why he was so interested in her in the first place. He wanted to manipulate her using Clint. "I'll not let you out." Melody spoke instantly, knowing exactly what he was getting at.

He began to laugh wickedly while staring at her. "Ah, no, but I like this." Melody looked to Natasha, showing her how angry she was as Natasha tried to show her in some way that everything was going to be all right as she stood up. "Your world is in the balance while you barging for one man. This _truly _must be love, Agent Barnes."

"Regimes fall every day." Natasha spoke as she got in front of Melody, knowing she was about to flip out on Loki. "I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian…or I was."

Loki looked back at Melody, thriving at how emotional she was getting because of him before looking back to Natasha. "What are you now?"

Natasha smirked, knowing she was reeling him in. "It's really not that complicated." She smiled as she moved even closer to the glass separating them. "I've got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you wipe off that much red?" Loki asked, his face turning into a sympathetic one. "Drakoff's daughter." Natasha got stiff, causing Melody to move closer to her, ready to protect her and jump in if she needed to, but Nat was staying strong. "Sao Paulo? The hospital fire?" Natasha just kept getting more and more emotional. "Barton told me everything." He stood up beginning to go closer to the two. "Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing with red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than you will change anything? You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you and they will never go away."

"What do you have to talk?!" Melody accused, jumping in front of Natasha, not being able to see her being attacked anymore. "You got pissy because you were adopted and your father saw more nobility in your brother. _His _son."

Loki was seething as he looked at her. "You're the most embarrassing one here." Loki spat out, never having been more mad with anyone ever before. "The child everyone has to babysit." Melody gave him a deep glare, knowing he was going to try to tear her apart. "The one with no special skills. The one that's only here because of who mommy is. And who your boyfriend is." Natasha was getting angrier just by hearing what Loki had to say about her. "The damsel in distress everyone has to save. The cultural princess cliché which you have become for everyone around. A flat out burden." Melody blinked a couple of times, feeling the sting, knowing he was just trying to get at all of her insecurities.

Melody was looking down, standing right in front of Loki just as he banged on the glass loudly, causing her to jump and turn back to him. "I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you." Melody's mouth dropped and she actually let a few tears out. This conversation was getting the emotional better of her. "Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. He'll wake just long enough to see his good work." Melody's mouth dropped as she put her hand on her stomach, feeling absolutely sick at the words he was telling her. "And when he screams, I'll split his skull."

Melody let out her sounds of fear and sorrow as Natasha put her hands on her shoulders, turning her around so she was no longer looking at him. Melody let out deep breaths while Natasha whispered out reassurances. Natasha whipped her head around at Loki, giving him a disappointing glance. "You're a monster."

His eyes got wild just as his smile got wider with the shake of the head. "Oh, no. You brought the monster."

Both Natasha and Melody stopped what they were doing, looking to each other, clearing all the fake emotion off of their face before turning around again to face Loki. "So, Banner?" Melody asked with the nod of the head. "That's your play?"

"What?" He asked in a confused and terrified voice.

Natasha began to hurry away, pushing her ear piece in further. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk."

Loki blinked a couple of times, still trying to process what had just happened. He looked back to Melody who was still standing there, realizing that she was trying to milk all the insults she could out of her. She was looking him up and down like she was completely unimpressed. "And I'm the simple minded one...princess." She moved closer to him. "I thought you were smarter than that." Her smirk turned into a glare this time. "Tell me again that I'm only here because of mommy." She growled before turning the other way to follow Natasha out.

When Melody reached Natasha, the two stood side by side, looking to Loki with a professional smile. "Thank you." Natasha told him with a polite nod, causing Melody to smile even more. "For your cooperation."

The two turned around, heading for the door, sharing a high five before walking through and having it close behind them, leaving Loki to bathe in his confusion and shock. Maybe he completely underestimated the Barnes girl.

* * *

Melody and Natasha had split up, Melody was going back to the lab to begin protecting Bruce while Natasha was on her way to get Thor. She was excitedly hurrying down the hall, proud that she had tricked the god of mischief himself. She was feeling really good about herself.

That's when someone grabbed her from behind, placing their hand over her mouth and dragged her into the shadows of the hallway. She immediately stepped on her attacker's foot and turned to punch him in the face, already on alert from Natasha grabbing her toady. "Ow!"

When her captor got into the light, she noticed that Steve was standing there, holding his nose. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She screamed at him while pushing him back. "Why is everyone kidnapping me today? You people do know there is the god of mischief on the ship, right?!"

Steve was still holding onto his nose as he spoke. "That was a really good punch."

She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "I'm kind of having an emotional day. What do you want, Steve?"

"I need your help."

Melody's face went blank as she stared at him, so totally done with today. "Are you kidding me? Asking for my help is too much? You had to go and kidnap me?"

"Melody," He spoke in a serious voice, causing her to focus on what he was saying this time. "Ever since we had that talk with Tony, I've been thinking…"

"You're having doubts about SHIELD."

"Big ones." He told her while finally moving his hand off his nose.

Melody sighed. She honestly had no idea how to feel about SHIELD. A part of her trusted them, but the other part was telling her that not everything was totally right about this organization she worked for. "Well, let's get those doubts settled." Melody looked around before looking back to Steve. "Follow me."

The two walked out from their hiding spot and began walking down the hallway. They were going to be stealthy, but Melody had no idea how stealthy they could possibly be in a dark violet and stars and stripes suits.

* * *

Steve looked around uncomfortably as Melody used her favorite dagger to pry the door open. He was such a good boy, and Melody knew that, but he was the one who started this project. "If this breaks my dagger," Melody spoke as she struggled. "You owe me a new one."

Right when she finished talking, the door opened, causing the two to give each other an impressive look. "Looks like I don't owe you a new dagger."

She laughed slightly as he moved forward and slid the door open for the two of them to walk in. There were crates surrounding the room and Melody looked behind her, making sure one last time before walking in. Steve walked through quickly, jumping up on one of the crates, pulling himself up to walk on the upper level and hurried on through as Melody just watched from below. "Show off." She mumbled before following his lead successfully.

There were even more crates on the second floor. "What do you think is in there?" Steve asked as he looked to all of them surrounding the two.

"I'm not gonna wait to be shown." Melody spoke as she moved to the first crate she could find, prying open the top with her nails.

Right as she got it open, Steve gasped as Melody's eyebrows furrowed. She knew she had seen this before, but she just couldn't put a finger on it. Steve's teeth clenched as he looked down at it. "Hydra." He growled out before pulling out the weapon lying in the crate. "Time to go expose Fury."

Steve walked off, but Melody looked back to the crate. She just couldn't believe it. She knew that something was up with SHIELD, but she never would have suspected this. Never in a million years would have expected something this bad. As she looked off to where Steve had gone, one thing was going through her mind. Fury had a lot of explaining to do.

* * *

Fury hurried into the lab, completely done once he found out that SHIELD had been hacked. He knew exactly who was responsible for this hack. "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

Tony was sitting on top of the desk with his legs crossed, still munching on those blueberries he had from earlier. He had given up on his search for Melody about halfway through, knowing that the priority for the world was to find the Tesseract. She would understand that more than anyone. Hell, she'd probably force him to go back when she found him. "Uh," Tony spoke as Bruce walked behind him. "I've kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be looking for the Tesseract." He told them in a tired voice, feeling like he was talking to a child.

"We are," Bruce told him as he moved to back up Tony as Tony's smile just got brighter from the confusion on Fury's face. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

Fury looked around, impressed with them, but still angry that Tony's device was still hacking right in front of him. "Then you get your cube. No muss, no fuss." Tony looked back to the screen as more SHIELD information showed up in front of his eyes. He didn't even notice Melody and Steve walking in. "What is Phase 2?"

Steve dropped the weapon they had found on a nearby counter as Melody stood on his right with her hands on her hips. "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons." Tony looked to his niece, eyes getting slightly wider, wondering what she was doing. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, Barnes," Fury spoke in an annoyed voice as he moved towards the two tiredly. "We gathered anything related to the Tesseract." Tony looked back to the monitor, trying to find something to prove their theory. He didn't care about Steve, but he cared about Melody. He cared about her more than anything. "This does not mean that we're – "

"I'm sorry, Nick." They all turned to Tony who was turning the monitor around so they could all get a good look at the screen. The monitor was simply showing one of the many weapons SHIELD was planning on designing. Melody looked to Tony just as he looked to her, catching a glimpse of her lipping the words: thank you. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director." Steve spoke as Natasha, Emily and Thor walked in, all being able to feel the immediate tension. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked as he moved towards Natasha.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha advised as she began to move in a circular motion across from him.

"I was in Calcutta." He laughed out as he began to move closer to her. "I was pretty removed."

"Loki's manipulating you." She told him calmly.

"No, Nat." Melody spoke while crossing her arms and looking her up and down. She really thought she knew her, but it seemed like she was all wrong lately. Natasha looked to her guiltily before looking back to Bruce. "Why don't you answer him?"

"A trainee agent knows when to be quiet and when to speak." Emily told as she moved closer to Melody.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

Tony hurried in front of Melody, slapping Emily's hand away from her. "You don't talk to her like that." He told her forcefully.

"Yes," Bruce spoke, agreeing with Natasha. "And I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He shook his head, causing everyone's attention to go to him. "Ever since I got on this ship, more things have happened that I'm not quick to believe. Clint Barton for example."

Melody's mouth dropped, feeling like she had just been stabbed as she looked over to Bruce. She couldn't believe he was just saying that. "What about Clint Barton?" Melody asked in a soft voice.

Everyone got instantly quiet, knowing that this was the worst possible thing to bring up with her. Bruce just felt guilty for being the one to bring this up, but someone had to say it. He couldn't lie to her. "How do we know that Clint is being controlled by Loki?"

Melody couldn't even fathom that this was even a question. "Like he's willingly working for that psychopath?"

"Or that SHIELD sent him in." Steve spoke, keeping his glare stuck on Fury.

"There's no way that's even plausible!" Melody yelled out.

"I'm sorry." Steve spoke as he put his hands on her shoulders. Tony simply rolled his eyes at him. "It had to be brought up."

Melody began to calm down somewhat until Tony spoke, "Well – "

"Well?!" Melody screamed as she turned around to face him, causing Steve's glare to go to Tony.

"Okay," Tony spoke, putting his hands up in defense. "Hear me out." He moved closer to her, but she just continued to give him a hostile glare. "What if he made a deal with Loki?"

"He would rather die." Melody spoke instantly. "What would he even make a deal for?"

"To protect you." Natasha jumped in. Melody turned around to look at her, shocked that Natasha of all people would accuse Clint Barton of being a traitor. "I've considered it." He told her with a shrug. "And you know he would do it to protect you."

"Why are we even talking about this?" Emily asked accusingly. "We told you what happened. Why are you questioning it?"

"I think SHIELD has done more than enough to result in us questioning you." Tony spoke as Melody continued to stare at Natasha, a flicker of doubt passing over something she had been so certain about.

"Clint is not the enemy here." Melody finally spoke, making sure to look at each of them. "I can promise you that if he did make a deal, he would have…" She began to stop, an idea coming to her head. "Left a message."

All the other Avengers looked to each other, not sure what she was getting at. It was like she was laughing at an inside joke the others hadn't gotten in on yet. "What?" Steve finally asked from the killing suspense.

"Clint." She laughed out, realizing how amazingly brilliant her boyfriend truly was. It was all becoming very clear to her. "He doesn't miss." She spoke, looking down like it was all finally clicking. "He had this weird thing about it. If he misses, he feels like he's just another guy. If he misses, there's nothing special about him."

"And," Thor began in a confused tone. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Because," Melody began, mesmerized. "He missed me." Everyone's wheels began turning all at once. "He had the perfect shot while we were in Germany. He could have killed me right there and then, but he didn't." Then something else occurred to her. "And then there was what Loki said in the jet."

"That Clint would scream your name in his sleep." Tony spoke, remembering his exact words.

"He remembers you." Steve spoke suddenly, putting it all together.

"And if we can trigger his memory about you," Natasha began while looking to Melody incredulously. "We can get him back."

"I'm happy for you." Bruce finally spoke, breaking Melody and Natasha out of their stare. "I really am, but I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Silence passed over until Emily moved away from Melody while turning to face Thor. "Because of him."

His eyes got wide as his head went down before he pointed at himself, trying to make sure she was talking about him. "Me?" Everyone looked over to Thor before looking back to Emily for more information.

Fury and Emily both shared a worried look before he began speaking for her. "Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that levelled a small town."

"We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously out gunned."

Thor moved toward Emily, looking angrier by the second. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury challenged right back while moving to stand next to Emily. "And you're not the only threat." He turned around on his heels, facing the very messed up Stark/Barnes/Rogers family. "The world's filling up with people that can't be matched or controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Melody scoffed with an eye roll as she looked to the two, mostly unimpressed with her mother.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it and his allies." Everyone looked back to Thor, now not knowing who in this room they could trust. Everything was falling back on each of them. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked, not totally sure if he could trust Thor anymore.

"You forced our hand." Emily spoke. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Melody spoke as Emily turned around to face her with that same annoyed face.

"Because that always calms everything down." Tony told her with a shrug, causing Fury to turn around to look at the two Starks.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Emily spat out, only infuriating Melody even more.

Steve stepped right next to Fury and Emily with his hands on his hips, looking directly at Tony. "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep – "

Melody looked to Steve with a hurt face. Now this was causing her to doubt Steve. Now she wasn't sure if she could trust anymore. "Wait, wait, hold on." Tony spoke as he moved towards the three, Melody staying close by to Tony this time. "How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry," Steve spoke in a sassy voice as he turned back to Tony. "Isn't everything?"

"You don't get to talk to him like that." Melody yelled while stepping in front of Tony protectively.

Tony gladly hid behind her shoulder especially since this meant that he was Melody's favorite. "Listen to your great niece, old man."

Melody rolled her eyes as she turned back to Tony. "Don't make me regret standing up for you."

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor spoke, meaning it as an insult to all of them.

"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked angrily.

Melody shut her eyes as Tony and Steve argued over her while more arguments began to brew between all of them. "Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha asked with an eye roll. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America is on threat watch?" Bruce asked with a half laugh.

"We all are." Natasha answered for him.

"Oh," Tony spoke sarcastically, looking to Steve. "You're on that list? Are you slightly above or slight below angry bees?"

"Tony!" Melody yelled out, completely done with him.

"Is this a threat?" He asked to her. "It's a verbal threat! I feel threatened!"

"He doesn't respect anything!" Steve finally spoke.

"Respect what?" Tony asked.

"Oh, my god!" Emily finally spoke to all of them. "Shut up!"

"Mother!" Melody yelled out while turning to her. "Everything you say is irrelevant!"

"You know, Melody," She spoke as she moved closer to her daughter. "You keep saying that you're angry with me because of everything I did when you were a child, but you want to know what I think?" Melody shrugged, not necessarily impressed her. "I think you're just scared that you're going to end up just like me."

Melody bit down on her lip, knowing there was some part of her that was scared of that possibility. Clint and Melody's story had been exactly like her mother and her father's story. She didn't want to be like her mom.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Melody looked away from her mother right when she heard Thor speak.

"It's his MO." They all looked back to Bruce. "Isn't it?" Melody and Emily looked to each other quickly until they remembered they were mad at each other. "I mean, what are we, a team?" He shook his head, just getting angrier with the whole thing. "No, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

Melody looked down at that, realizing that what he was saying…it made perfect sense. "You need to step away." Fury advised him as he moved towards him calmly.

Tony shrugged at it. "Why can't the guy blow off a little steam?"

He put his hand on Steve's shoulders casually, causing Steve to push him away angrily for even touching him. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

Melody turned from the direction of her mother to get between Steve and Tony, knowing they would both always be more important to her than her mother. "Oh," Tony spoke while giving Steve daggers for eyes. "I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Guys, stop this." Melody spoke as she had one hand on each of their chests, knowing none of this was worth it.

Steve scoffed, not taking what she was saying into account. He just kept his stare with Steve as he began to circle him. "Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

Melody stood behind Tony, begging with her eyes for them to stop this, but no one was looking at her. She felt like she could have been bleeding in the back and no one would have been listening. Tony looked to Steve, one of the veins in his neck popping out from how angry he was getting. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Natasha shrugged, knowing he had a good point, causing in an eye roll from Melody. She wasn't particularly happy with her either. "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." He shook his head at him. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Melody moved forward and grabbed Tony's hand tight. She was trying to do something…anything to make him calm down. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play." Melody knew this was hurting Tony and all she wanted to do was make him feel better. "To lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Tony shook his head, knowing what Melody was doing and he knew he was going to be strong for her. He was the one who was supposed to show her examples of how to act. "I think I would just cut the wire."

Steve laughed before looking to the others with the shake of the head. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony questioned while looking him up and down like he wasn't impressed. "Like you?" He moved closer to him, pulling his hand out from Melody's, not caring about what she thought about him at the moment. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Steve simply got closer to him as Melody tried to get in between them. "Can we stop this meaningless pissing contest?!" She asked from right next to them.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

They all turned at the sound of Thor's laughter. "You people are so petty." He studied them for a moment, his face turning into confusion. "And tiny."

"_Yeah_," Bruce spoke sarcastically from the back as Melody pushed both Steve and Tony back as calmly as she could with how pissed she was. "This is a team."

"Agent Romanoff," Emily spoke as she moved towards Natasha. "Would you escort Dr. Banner back to his – "

"Back to where?" Bruce interrupted as he got close to Emily. "You're renting my room."

"The cell was just – "

"In case you needed to kill me." He finished before her. "But you can't. I _know_. I _tried_." The room got deathly silent at his confession. Everyone was pained by the fact that he tried to do this to himself. "I got low." He spoke as he crossed his arms, knowing he was revealing something he had never told anyone before. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out." Melody looked down at that bit. She knew the thought of wanting to kill yourself. She experienced it heavily when Tony went missing.

"So I moved on, I focused on helping other people until you dragged me back into this freak show." He moved behind him, pulling up Loki's spear, causing the rest of them to begin standing back, Tony and Steve both putting their hands in front of Melody. "You put everyone here at risk." Melody looked over at her mother, knowing Bruce was only getting closer to her. Her hand rested on her gun as she began to step back, causing Melody to get even more scared of what was going to happen to her. He suddenly turned to Natasha, turning his head to the side, remembering what she had asked him when they were in India. "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

Everyone began to go to their weapons. Even Melody. "Dr. Banner," Steve finally spoke, breaking him out of his trance. "Put down the scepter."

Bruce looked down at what he was holding then back up, almost like he was hating himself for what he was doing. Just then, their computer monitor began to beep, causing the three scientists to look to it excitedly. "Did you find it?" Melody asked as she ran over to the computer quickly.

"Sorry, kids." Bruce spoke as he put Loki's scepter back down. "Looks like you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked excitedly as he followed them.

"I can get there faster." Tony jumped in as Thor looked to him like he was insane.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it."

Tony began to go towards the door, resulting in Steve grabbing his arm. "You're not going alone."

Melody looked up from the monitor to look at the two. "You gonna stop me?" Tony asked as he hit Steve's hand away.

"Not again." Melody mumbled before looking back to the monitor. She wanted to find the Tesseract. She wanted to find Clint, but Tony and Steve were taking precedence.

"Put on a suit, let's find out." Steve challenged right as Melody got there, trying to squeeze between the two.

They were trying to outdo the other so bad that their chests were touching. "I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit." Steve growled out.

The beeping from the computer monitor continued and even got louder, causing Melody to look back to it. Bruce took off his glasses, realizing where the Tesseract was. Right next to them. He looked up at Melody, the two making nervous eye contact before he breathed out, "Oh, my god."

An explosion sent them all back, Natasha and Bruce into the lower levels of the ship, Emily, Fury and Thor out of the lab and into the operating room at the front of the ship and Tony, Steve and Melody were sent to the side by the door.

Steve got up in a push up position as Melody rolled over from her stomach onto her back, taking deep breaths, trying to process what had just happened. Tony picked his head up, sitting with his knees pressed to his chest, both of the boys checking on Melody before doing anything. She nodded as she began to push the upper half of her body up with her elbows. "I'm okay."

She put her hand on her aching head before looking to Steve, not knowing what to do. "Put on the suit." He simply said, causing Tony to get up instantly, making Melody surprised. This was the first time Tony had ever listened to Steve.

The three helped each other stand up and hurried out the door. Together, they all knew what this threat was. It was their ally. Hawkeye. And Melody wasn't sure if she was going to be ready to fight Clint Barton.


	7. Our Broken Pieces

_**This chapter is a lot longer than all my others because I really wanted to get this whole part of the ship being attacked into one chapter. I hope you all enjoy and remember to review! And don't forget about Scribble suggestions if you have any!**_

Everyone in SHIELD hurried around, getting prepared even if they didn't know what they were getting prepared for. Emily rolled onto her stomach, taking deep breaths, taking a moment to process what had happened. "Melody." She whispered out. With all the strength she could muster, she pushed herself up, getting a view of the lab. When she saw where Melody had been standing and calculated where the blast would have sent her, she gasped. Blood pooled the floor, and she knew that Melody would be the last person to tell anyone what had happened. "Oh no."

"Hill!" Fury yelled into his walkie talkie while he sat up, only a few feet away from Emily.

"It's a detonation." Maria spoke into hers while trying to get everything under control, going from computer to computer. "Number three engine is down."

"We've been hit!" One of the woman agents called from her left. "We've got a fire in engine three!" Another voice said.

Maria hurried over to the first agent she saw, turning so she could look on his monitor. "Talk to me."

"The turbine looks mostly intact, but it is impossible to get out there and repair while we're in the air."

Maria sighed helplessly. "Well if we lose one more engine we won't be." She mumbled to herself before going to the ear piece to talk. "Somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine."

"Stark!" Fury called into his ear piece. "Did you copy that?"

"I'm on it." His voice came over the radio.

That was one thing less he had to worry about. When he turned, he looked for Emily, trying to give her an order, but she was no longer there. He let out a heavy sigh before going back to his ear piece, knowing something had to be done whether they had Emily or not. "Coulson, initiate the lockdown in the detention center, then in the armory." He got up from his spot on the floor and began to hurry out of the lab, but stopped when he saw the blood. He now knew why Emily was nowhere to be found. And with that, he needed help. He needed her protector. "Romanoff!"

* * *

Natasha's leg was stuck under a metal pipe. She tried to move it, but it was seeming impossible. All she knew right now was that she had to report. "We're okay." She spoke as she pushed the button on her ear piece. When she looked over to Bruce, he was writhing on the floor. It looked like he was trying to keep himself from changing. And now, Natasha had something completely different to worry about. "We're okay, right?"

* * *

Clint led his group into the helicarrier. All of his minions jumped in before him and right when he swung down his rope, the inside part of his brain was screaming at himself. "Keep that engine down!" He ordered anyway, keeping his real self at bay. "And make those cameras go dark." He looked to one of the men closest to him, deciding he needed back up, not sure if the other Clint was going to come out here. "You stay close."

* * *

Melody, Tony and Steve continued to hurry through the helicarrier and Melody expected Clint to come around the corner any second. She had her gun and her knives, but she didn't know if she had the strength to hurt Clint. "Get to engine three." Melody looked up at the sound of Tony's voice. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it together. "I'll meet you two there."

Melody stopped walking, wanting to wait for Tony, but Steve pulled her along. They both knew what he had to do. With the click of his remote button, a door opened, revealing his Iron Man suit, the small triangle glowing, ready to be put on and to fix the engine.

* * *

Bruce was gripping onto whatever he could, feeling so much discomfort and pain in trying to keep himself from being turned. "Doctor?" Natasha asked in a meek voice as she began to get even more scared. "Bruce?" She asked again as she tried to pull her leg out from under the pipe. "You got to fight it." Bruce sat up with his knees on the floor as he kept up with his deep breaths. "This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me." Two men began to run over to help, but Natasha waved them away, knowing that anything could set Bruce off to change. "We're gonna be okay, all right?" He began to growl, causing Natasha to being to twitch from nervousness. "I swear on my life that I will get you out of here and you will never ever – "

"Your life?!" Bruce interrupted with a scary, deep voice that echoed in the entire area. Bruce got up on his knees, beginning to grow green and his shirt starting to rip as his muscles grew.

Natasha began to struggle even further to get out as Bruce let out more growls as he staggered back. Bruce looked to her over his shoulder, giving her an apologetic glance before letting out more growls of pain as he turned into something everyone on this ship would fear. "Bruce." Natasha whispered before struggling to get out again as he stood up. All she could feel in that moment was guilt because if it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be here right now.

Natasha finally wriggled her leg out from under the pipe and hurriedly stood up. But she didn't get by unnoticed. She hurried up the stairs as he chased after her, ripping the stairs off as she flipped onto one of the platforms. She made her way through the air vents as fast as she could, but none of it was doing anything. He was still chasing after her and he was incredibly close.

As his roar rung through the helicarrier, Loki smiled, a laugh bubbling in his throat. His evil little plan was working.

* * *

Fury ran through the control room, going right to the one person that was keeping the thing flying. "We have been carrying 180 to the south. Take us to the water."

The man turned around, his eyes going wide from what his director had just told him. "Free wind. Navigation recalibration after the engine failure."

Fury moved toward him, his eyes wide. "Is the sun coming up?" He asked in the most obvious tone.

"Yes, sir." He spoke like he was terrified, his voice growing small.

"Then put it on the left." He practically yelled out. "Take us on the water."

"Sir," He spoke in a calm voice. "If one more turbine goes down we're trapped."

Fury took a deep breath. "Stark!"

* * *

"Stark!" Steve yelled as they moved through to get to the outside of the turbine as Melody held her side, her hand only getting bloodier. "Stark, I'm here!"

"Good." Tony spoke as the two looked up to see his suit fly in. "Let's see what we got." He spoke as he hovered next to the damage. Melody took this distraction to look down at her wound. Her suit had only gotten darker in the area of her cut, but you couldn't really tell it was from the blood. She simply pulled it further away from everyone's view before looking back up at Tony. "I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris."

"You need us to get to the control panel?" Melody inferred as she pushed the ear piece further into her ear.

"Yeah," Tony spoke to her. "Mel," She looked down, trying to concentrate on his words. "Tell me which relays are in overload position."

Melody looked over to where she had to go and took a deep breath. "I'm so glad that my mom made me take gymnastics classes when I was three and I stuck with it my whole life." With all of her might, she jumped, grabbing onto one of the near bars before swinging onto the platform where the control panel was, sticking the landing perfectly.

Steve was shocked about how perfectly she did that. Looks like the gymnastic skills ran in the family. He quickly joined her, not doing the flip as gracefully or as perfect as her, but he didn't think about it as she opened up the control panel and pulled it out. Melody's eyes went everywhere, reading everything like a second language. Steve's eyes went everywhere also, but in a different way. In a way that he had never seen anything like this before and had no idea what any of this meant. "It seems to run on some form of electricity." Steve spoke while throwing his hand in the air.

Melody and Tony both slightly rolled their eyes. Not at Steve, but themselves for realizing they were asking Steve to do this. "Well," Tony sighed out. "You're not wrong."

* * *

Natasha had gotten quiet as she went through the inside of the ship, trying her best not to make a sound for the green monster outside to hear. She heard his footsteps, but she couldn't quite pinpoint where his footsteps were coming from. She moved to another spot, holding her gun close to her. Right as she inched forward, a growl came from her left. She gasped and turned to see the Hulk screaming in her ear. She immediately went forward and began shooting at him. She knew it wouldn't hurt him, but she hoped it would distract him. She shot a hole in a nearby pipe, sending out steam.

She ran down one of the hallways with a slight limp from that pipe being on her leg for so long. But she could hear him screaming behind her as she ran forward, taking down everything he could with him. Lights were going everywhere and Natasha tried to pick up her pace, but she could barely see.

The Hulk swatted her away like a bug, sending her into the wall extremely hard. She grunted as she tried to sit up, but the Hulk had the upper hand. He moved to her, towering over her as she began to shake from her fear. He picked up his hand, preparing to swat her again. This time, for good.

But he was knocked down instantly. By Thor. When they tumbled into the aircraft preparation room, everyone stared at them, shocked, not sure what they had to do. Thor began to sit up as all the humans ran out from fear and Natasha continued to sit in her spot, traumatized by what had happened.

Both Thor and the Hulk circled each other before Bruce sent a blow to Thor that would have destroyed him, but the Asgardian caught his fist. He held his fist up, shocking Hulk as he held him up without wavering. "We are not your enemies, Banner." Right now, Thor would have said anything to get him to try to see who he really was. "Try to think." The Hulk simply raised his arm, taking Thor up with him before throwing him into the boxes nearby, completely destroying them.

* * *

Tony tore some of the debris out that he could while throwing it off to the side. Melody had done most of what Tony needed, trying to explain every single step to Steve as best as she could even though he looked lost for most of the time. "The relays are intact." Melody told Tony as she put one of her hands on her wound. She was starting to really feel the pain.

"What's our next move?" Steve asked, not even noticing Melody's pained face, only focused on the task that was in front of him.

"Even if I clean the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump." Tony shook his head, coming up with the only conclusion. "I'm gonna have to get in there and push."

Melody's eyes widened over how dangerous that could be. "Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded." Steve spoke, now worried about this one person he thought he absolutely hated.

Tony sighed, knowing he was speaking the truth. "Melody," He spoke in a commanding voice. "Stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage – "

"Speak English!" Steve finally spoke.

Melody sighed out. She was completely following and she was getting really annoyed that she had to explain every little thing to him. "Yeah," Tony spoke. "Mel, you take this one."

Melody turned to him, knowing the first thing she was doing if she got out of this alive was teach Steve how to at least operate a computer. She walked over to what she needed with heavy steps. "See this red lever?" She spoke obviously. "It'll slow the rotors long enough for Tony to get out." Steve looked down at her side, finally noticing something he should have noticed a long time ago. "We stand by it and wait for his word."

"What happens when you can't stand anymore?" Melody sucked in a breath when he spoke as she looked down at her side, putting one of her hands over it, trying to cover it. "Melody," He spoke in that commanding voice that she couldn't ignore. The one that only the closest men in her life knew how and when to use it. "You need medical attention."

"And I'll get it once this madness is over." She promised, causing Steve to look her up and down before biting his lip.

* * *

Thor was thrown into even more boxes and it was starting to make him mad. As he heard the Hulk's roar, he began to smile, knowing that in a moment, he would have the upper hand. He threw out his hand and closed his eyes, concentrating on Mjolnir. Hulk's footsteps grew closer, but Thor's calm wasn't wavering. Mjolnir ended up in his hand right when Hulk bashed through. With a smile now plastered on his face, Thor swung the hammer up, hitting him right in the jaw, sending him down with a shake of the entire ship.

Hulk got up, even angrier than before, tearing off the wing of a nearby aircraft and throwing it to Thor. Thor was ready. With the sound of the wing flying, Thor threw his head back, barely missing the wing as it cut a jeep in half.

This fight wasn't just making the Hulk angrier, it was making Thor angrier. So now, his hits were aiming to hurt him. He threw his hammer and Hulk caught it with his hand, but the strength of it sent him right down. Hulk tried his hardest to pick the thing up, even creating holes in the ship from his feet. With the moment he had, Thor went forward to kick the Hulk in the face, sending him staggering back. Thor took advantage of his upper hand as he climbed on top of Hulk, planning on chocking him out, but Hulk quickly took the upper hand, throwing Thor down on his back.

* * *

Fury flipped through the images on the monitor closest to him, seeing all the damage the two were causing in the lower decks. "I need a full evac on the lower deck." Fury spoke, pointing mindlessly to Maria.

She hurriedly walked away from him right as Emily appeared right in front of her at the end of the hall. The two stopped at the sight of each other, but Emily's eyes quickly went to the floor when she heard the rolling. "Grande!" She called before jumping in front of Maria, knocking her down and off the platform they were standing on.

While the two were trying to recover, Fury hid behind a wall, a pistol in hand, waiting for the first guard he could get. He grabbed the front of his gun, leaving him unable to do anything as he shot the one in front of him. After that, Fury used the butt of the gun to bash him in the head, sending him to the floor. He flipped over another guard like it was nothing before punching the other in the face. When he looked to his other side, he could see a guard coming right toward him, but he had nothing to defend himself with. Before he could even think about what his last words were going to be, a bullet rang out. When he looked, he got a glimpse of Maria Hill's deathly glare with blood coming out of a gash on her forehead.

Emily flipped her hair back as it all rested in front of her face before looking up at Maria. She pulled her down, staring into every inch of her eyes. "Where's my daughter?" She asked her in an intense voice as she began to squeeze her shoulders.

"She's trying to fix the engine with Tony and Steve." Emily stood up quickly, but the second she stood up, she began to get woozy, feeling herself fall back into Maria's arms, but still conscious. "Emily," Maria spoke in a panicked voice as she put her down in a sitting position. "Just a rest for a little bit.

"I can't." Emily cried out as she let her head rest on one of the nearby bars. "Melody's hurt. She needs my help."

"Emily," Maria spoke in a soft voice, still worried about telling her supervisor this. "You can't control her."

Emily looked up at her, knowing it was the truth, but at the same time, wanting to keep that innocence of the young Melody she knew. The Melody that she could control in some points. But this Melody was grown up. She would never be able to control any parts of her again…and that was haunting her. "But I want my little girl back." Emily whispered in the saddest depths of her voice, hating this one part of being a mother. The knowledge of no longer being needed.

The two were immediately showered with bullets, causing them to get into an immediate cover stance, shooting out as many of Clint Barton's guards as they could. "We have the Hulk and Thor in the research level!" One of the SHIELD agent's voice came over the radio. "Levels two and three are dark!"

"Sir!" Maria yelled out, taking a break from shooting. "The Hulk will tear this place apart!"

"Get his attention." Fury growled out while keeping his shooting position, not wanting to be distracted for a moment.

Emily took cover, putting her hand to her ear piece as Maria and Fury continued shooting. "Escorts 60, proceed to the lower levels. Don't get too close."

The jets from outside the helicarrier moved forward, getting an eye on what Emily was talking about. The pilot got to the lower levels of the helicarrier, seeing both the Hulk and Thor fighting hardly able to believe what he was seeing. "Target acquired." The man in the jet reported before moving to aim at his spot. "Target engaged."

The pilot began shooting out bullets as Thor dove for cover. Hulk, on the other hand, _hated _this. He growled to the pilot before jumping in the air, only destroying the jet in his mind. "Target angry." The pilot reported to Emily in a terrified voice. "Target angry!"

Hulk was on the top of the jet, trying to tear out everything he could as the pilot got ready to be ejected. He watched from his safe seat with a parachute as the jet blew up, sending the Hulk to god knows where.

* * *

As both Steve and Melody waited impatiently while Tony broke away some of the debris, they could see two soldiers making their way towards them from a level under. One took out a grenade, trying to throw it into the engine to cause more damage, but Steve jumped in the way, knocking it into the sky while jumping onto their level.

When Melody joined them, she grabbed one of the loose rods nearby, beating him in the face with it as Steve kicked his gun out of his hands. The two of them kicked one of the guards in the chest, sending him staggering back. The two split up, taking on their own guards, Melody throwing one over her shoulder and Steve pushing him over the edge as they both fell through the air.

More guards came along and as they shot at them, Steve picked up his shield, distracting the guard long enough for the two to go up on the second level. Steve picked up one of the dropped guns as Melody pulled out one of her throwing daggers. They both shot at each other as Steve pushed Melody back, but she just rolled her eyes. She could end this in no time. She moved from behind Steve, throwing her dagger, landing the guard right in the heart. She sighed as she turned to Steve with her hands on her hips. "And that's how you take care of that."

Steve rolled his eyes, but right as his eyes went down, he got the view of another guard coming towards him. He pulled out the gun, shooting him right in the head, sending him down instantly. Melody's eyes grew wide, realizing that if Steve wasn't there, she would probably be dead. He put his hands on his hips, a growing smile as he looked down at her. "And that's how you do that."

* * *

As Fury crouched behind his hiding place, he was just getting angrier with the more bullets he shot off. "They are not gonna do this here."

That's when an explosive arrow shot off. Fury growled, knowing exactly who this was. When he stood up, he got a good look at his former agent, throwing a grenade into a crowd full of his people. This time, Clint switched arrow heads out to hack into SHIELD servers. Fury was having enough of this. He wasn't planning on killing Clint, just seriously injuring him as he shot his gun off.

Right when the arrow plugged itself in, everything on the SHIELD helicarrier just stopped working. Everyone stood there, letting panicked silence take over as everything simply stopped. "Engine one is now in shut down."

Everyone began to panic, but Fury and Emily didn't have time to take a moment to panic because the ship immediately began to tilt from the lack of engines. "Sir," One of the agents reported. "We lost all of engine one."

Natasha sat in her crouching position, her knees to her chest, still trying to get over what had just happened to her. Melody, she stood there frozen as Steve continued to shoot. Her hand was on her ear, listening in on the SHIELD talk. "It's Barton." Fury finally spoke. "He took our systems. He's headed for the detention lab." Melody took a deep breath. This was her fight. Clint was her fight. She was going to fix him even if this wound was piercing her with pain. "Does anybody copy?"

This was something she was going to do whether it was with her last breath or not. Melody shut her eyes before pushing the button to talk. "This is Barnes." Emily perked up when she heard her daughter's voice. She was just glad to know she was okay. "I copy."

"Melody," Emily spoke in a frantic voice as Melody already began jumping off the platform she was on with Steve, beating up any guard that tried to get in her way. Steve simply watched her as she walked away, knowing there was nothing he could do. He respected her. He knew she had to do this. And even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to stop her. "This is insane. You're hurt. You can't do this."

"You can't stop me, Emily." Melody spoke as she hurried to the detention lab, picking up her pace as her stomach pulled down, the closer she got, the more nervous she was.

"Your mother's right." Natasha's voice came through the radio, causing Melody to stop in her tracks, not even wanting to imagine what she was going through right now. "You can't do this." Her voice sounded so weak. "Not alone."

"Tasha – " Melody began in a worried voice, feeling absolutely guilty for bringing her in on this in the state she was in.

"I'll meet you there in a few minutes." Natasha spoke with no more argument. Melody took a deep breath before picking up her pace again. She had to admit one thing, she would be glad that Natasha was there with her even if this guilty was piercing at her like the wound.

* * *

Tony got into one of the engine rotors and began to push it forward, trying to at least help them keep a steady pace in the air. "Stark, we're losing altitude."

"Yeah," Tony breathed out, still stressed about the conversation he had just heard with Melody being hurt and going to take on Clint. One person who was much more advanced in combat skills than her. "Noticed." He turned on his thrusters, beginning to get a good moving pace for the engine to stay in the air instead of fall out of the sky.

Steve was continuing his gun battle with the last Clint minion left. Steve began to step back, the bullets getting extremely close to him. Right as he backed up as far as he could go, he began to slip off of the edge. Everything slowed down as he freely fell in the air for a few seconds before finding a wire to grab on to. With deep breaths, he looked down, knowing he was in way too deep.

* * *

Thor ran through the SHIELD corridors, his only thoughts on getting to Loki before he tried to escape. Right as he got through the door of the room with the holding cell, Loki was making his way out, opening the door himself. "No!" Thor yelled before running to him, planning on tackling him down. Loki crouched like he was ready to take him on, but right as Thor touched him, he began to disappear and Thor landed in the holding cell.

As he turned around, the doors were closing, causing him to try to make a run for it, but by the time he got there, it was too late. He was trapped as the real Loki stared at him from outside the holding cell with his minions walking around behind him. Loki was studying him with a serious face as Thor pressed up against the glass, only getting angrier. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?"

* * *

Clint casually walked through the detention lab, only focused on his job, but he could see a shadow right in front of him. He turned around, stringing his bow, but Natasha caught his arm, kicking him in the shin as he swung the bow at her.

Now that he was turned around, Melody ran in, kicking him in the back before grabbing his arm and twisting it, giving Natasha a chance to get away and regroup. Melody kicked him the chest before following her lead, going under the bridge, meeting Natasha instantly. Clint couldn't even believe what was happening. The two girls that meant the most to him were trying to beat him up and this spell he was under made him _want_ to beat them up.

Natasha wrapped her upper body around the bridge before kicking her legs up at Clint, sending him staggering back. He immediately strung his bow up again and shot off an arrow, but the inside Clint did it again. His arm jerked, forcing him to miss causing Melody to smile.

Melody got an idea, jumping over to the other bridge, getting Clint's attention, remembering Loki's words in the back of his mind. _Kill Melody Barnes. The first chance you get._ He jumped onto the second bridge, following Melody, confusing Natasha completely. They had a perfectly good fight going on over here. Why get distracted? Unless…she was his target all along.

She punched, but he blocked. He swung an arrow at her, but she simply blocked him. She was mirroring all his moves. And it was really pissing him off. The real Clint was in there watching and he was rooting for her. She had gotten so good at fighting and Clint was honestly so proud. He pushed his bow to her again, but she grabbed the string and as he pulled to get it away from her, it simply stretched out. That's when he pulled hard enough to head butt her. "Listen to me." Melody spoke as he slammed her into the bars of the bridge, causing her to let out a groan of pain. "Your name is Clinton Francis Barton."

"Shut up!" He growled before pushing her into the bars again.

She kicked his legs out from under him, causing him to let go of his bow, Melody ripping it from his hands as Clint pulled out one of the daggers from her utility belt. Clint got to a crouching position, running her dagger through his hand as Melody gave him a smile, waving one of his arrows before stringing it up in the bow. Then her smile went away quickly, knowing what she was going to have to do if this continued. "Please, don't make me do this." He simply stared at her before going forward, trying to slash her with her own dagger.

* * *

Thor pounded his hammer in the glass, making cracks in it, but it wasn't doing anything. It wasn't going to break a thing, just make a lot of noise. Loki smiled at him, revealing in his winnings before taking a few steps back. "The humans think us immortal." He moved to the control panel, growing a sick smile on his face. "Should we test that?"

He came close to pulling the lever that would send him falling at an alarming rate, but he was stopped by the sound of his guard falling to the ground. Coulson was standing over his body with a very large gun in his hand. "Move away please." He spoke causally as he began to move forward, stepping over the body. Loki put his hands up in defense as Coulson got even closer to Loki. "You like this?" He asked, referring to the gun. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the destroyer here." He shrugged, almost excitedly. "Even I don't know what it does. Wanna find out?"

The gun began to power up just when Emily ran into the doorway. But right when she got there, she wished she hadn't been heading that way to help Coulson out. Loki shoved his spear in Coulson's back using one of his fake appearances, causing Emily and Thor to immediately scream.

Emily stood in the doorway, breathing heavily, wanting to take what she just saw away from her memory. Loki ripped the spear out of his body, causing Emily to cringe. As Loki walked away from Coulson as he fell to the floor, Emily didn't care about what would have happened to her. She ran to Coulson, hardly able to believe that these breaths he was breathing were about to be his last.

And before Emily knew it, Loki pushed the only button needed to send Thor hurdling through the sky in that steel, glass trap. Emily knew there was nothing she could do about either situations, but all she could feel was guilt from not doing anything.

* * *

Clint punched Melody in the face, but she just kicked him in the chest while flipping over. Natasha tried to jump onto the bridge with them, but Clint immediately knocked her off, not wanting to fight her at all. Only wanting to fight Melody.

While Clint was distracted, she punched him before twisting his arm into ways where he wouldn't be able to use it. Then, Clint jabbed her in the wound to get out of it, causing her to fall to her knees. He punched Melody while she sat there in pain before climbing on top of her, getting his bow from her while placing the string right in front of her neck. Before he could start pulling, she placed her hand in front of the string, giving her just enough time to think of what to do next.

"Clint," Melody whispered before elbowing him in the stomach and standing up weakly while Clint grabbed his aching stomach on the floor. "You know me." He got up, trying to stab her with her own dagger, but she wrapped his arm up, holding it as close to her chest as possible, hoping he could look at her and see something in her eyes. "Why else would you miss?"

With the blink of the eye, his eyes went back to his own in a split second, his face softening slightly, but almost immediately went back to Loki's controlling gaze. He grabbed her blonde ponytail, pulling her head back, trying to put the knife in her throat as Melody let out angry growls. "You're the love of my life." Melody practically cried out, just wanting him to understand.

Clint was breaking on the inside at the sound of her voice, screaming at himself for even pulling a knife of her. "You're my target!" He screamed out, getting the knife only an inch away from her neck.

Melody had no other choice. She leaned forward, biting him on the arm as hard as she could, but he let go of her. "Then kill me!" She screamed out before kicking him into the bars of the bridge. Clint stopped, staring at her, feeling the real Clint bubbling to the surface again. "Because you've got me until the end."

Clint was so close to coming out from under this spell, but there was that fading bit of him that told him to hold onto his promise to Loki. He went for her, deciding the best thing to do with her fighting style was to tackle her to the ground. Melody saw it all coming, though. She grabbed his head right when he neared her and slammed him into the bars of the bridge.

He grabbed onto the bar after that hit, letting out a few grunts, throwing Melody off that instant. Through this whole fight, he had shown no sign of pain or tiredness until now. He struggled to get up on his knees and Melody moved towards him, still cautiously, not sure what to expect. He looked up at her, and she noticed in that moment, his eyes were no longer that cloudy blue Loki made them. They were that deep pool of blue she was so in love with. "Mel." He breathed out lovingly as she gave him a bright smile with a little chuckle.

But Natasha showed up behind him, punching him the back of the head, causing him to fall right in front of Melody's feet, her mouth dropping to the floor as he remained still. "Natasha!" She screamed while looking up at her.

"Oh, bite me." She told her with an eye roll. She looked down at her wound, her uniform material only growing darker since Melody had last looked. "You're gonna pass out any minute anyway from all that blood you just lost."

Melody let out a deep sigh as she slowly moved to sit down on the floor. "You are so right." She slowly laid her head on the floor and right when her brain registered that it was lying on the ground, she lost consciousness.

Natasha put her hands on her hips as she looked back and forth at the two. "Now both of the lovebirds are knocked out." She spoke in a bland voice. "How cute?"

* * *

Emily was holding onto Coulson's hand as Loki began to go to the doorway, not even caring about the two that were still sitting there. He thought he'd give them some time seeing as one was about to die. "You're going to lose."

Loki turned back to them, thinking that this probably wasn't the best plan. Maybe he should just kill them on the spot. "Am I?" He asked in an amused tone, a smile on his face.

"It's in your nature." Coulson told him with a shrug as Emily just looked back and forth between the two with wet tears resting on her face.

He shook his head as he looked at the dying man. "Your heroes are scattered, you're floating fortress fall from the sky." He shrugged again, this time, the smile missing. "Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction." He told him with full confidence.

"I don't think I – " Just as he moved towards them, Coulson shot off the gun, resulting in him falling into the other room. Coulson simply shrugged as Emily's mouth remained dropped. "So that's what it does."

* * *

Tony was going around and around as fast as he could, making sure they could stay in the air. "Cap," He spoke flustered, knowing if he stayed this fast for any longer than he would probably be killed. "Pull the lever."

Steve was still struggling to pull himself up from the wire he was barely hanging on to. "I need a minute, here!"

"Lever!" Tony spoke, only getting more nervous. "Now!"

Right when Steve pulled himself back up, that one minion was still shooting at him, causing him to roll his eyes.

Tony got the rotors going steady, but that also meant that he wasn't going fast enough for it anymore. He looked behind him, noticing the blade catching up on him. "Oh, no." He whispered before being sucked under.

He wasn't stuck there for long, though. Steve got to the red lever, pulling it down instantly. Tony got out of the rotors, his thrusters not working quite properly at first, but they adjusted themselves. That's when Tony was real tiered with all of this. He flew as fast as he could manage to Steve, knocking down the last Loki minion before rolling over on his back to take a much needed rest.

* * *

The rest of Loki's minions got together on the ship with Loki in the back, smiling a devious smile. He had got just want he wanted and he was feeling really great about himself.

Emily ran into the holding cell's room with Fury following close behind her. She had run off to get Fury for only a few minutes, but when she came back, Coulson somehow looked weaker. Now she was really wishing she would have stayed with him. The two crouched down right next to him, feeling insanely sad just at the look at him. "I'm sorry, boss. They got rabbited."

"Just stay awake." Fury commanded as he moved his chin to look right at him. "Eyes on me."

Coulson gave them a little chuckle. "I'm clocking out here."

"Not an option." Emily told him in a hoarse voice.

"It's okay, boss." He told them in a content voice that was breaking both of their hearts. "This was never going to work if they didn't have something to…" Coulson trailed off as he took his last breaths while looking off to the side, no longer moving. Ever again.

"Oh, god." Emily whispered before Fury put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, needed the comfort of a friend's touch just as much as she did. The two of them stood up, still holding onto each other as they stepped back to let the medical team inspect him even if they knew they wouldn't be able to do anything.

Fury looked to her, knowing they had to let the entire team know what was happening. He put a finger to his ear piece. "Agent Coulson is down." Maria Hill stopped the medical team examining her from that update.

"A medical team is on their way to your location." One of the other agents spoke over the radio as Natasha watched Clint and Melody being taken away by another medical team.

"They're already here." Tony and Steve waited on the news, standing close to each other like if they were protecting Melody. This time, it was for themselves. "They called it." Everyone bowed their head in a somber silence, knowing a very important part of their team was now going to be missing.

_**I hope you all liked. I tried to use the scene from the Winter Soldier where Bucky and Steve are on the bridge to parallel the fight scene with Clint and Melody. Remember again to review and suggest!**_


	8. Revelations

Tony held Melody's left hand in both of his, keeping her hand as close to his face as possible. His worried eyes never left her still face as he sat as close as he was allowed. Steve's hand laid over Melody's right hand as he leaned back and watched her. He was getting tired, but he wasn't going to leave Melody. He was going to watch her, keep an eye on her the entire time she spent in here. Both of the men sat there in silence, not finding anything to talk about, but also way too worried to talk. They knew she was going to be all right. The doctor told them so, but Tony and Steve would only feel better when she was awake.

Melody's brows crunched together as she let out soft moans. The tiredness instantly wore off their faces as they looked right to her, moving closer in anticipation to see her awake, to hear her voice. "Tony?" She whispered in a softly as her eyes began to slowly open.

"I'm right here." He told her intensely as her head rolled to the left while her eyes were still struggling to open all the way. "I'm right here, Melody." When she turned to him, she gave him a slight smile as he stroked her cheek with his hand. "I'm right here, baby. I'm not leaving." Steve watched the two, no longer feeling this jealousy he had felt before, but an understanding. This man was more than her uncle, he was her father and Steve accepted that.

Her eyes were fully open and she was blinking rapidly, everything that happened coming to her in a huge rush. "Where's Clint?" She asked quickly as she sat all the way up.

"Hey," Steve spoke with a soft voice, trying to push her back down on the bed. "He's all right. He's recovering in a separate room."

"But he's okay?" She asked desperately, only wanting to see him.

The two men looked to each other, not sure what to say. "For now." Tony finally spoke.

"What the hell does that mean?!"

"Melody," Tony began slowly before turning to look at Steve, both not sure how she would take this. "He had a god in his brain." Melody looked down, still wishing she could have been there for him when he needed her a long time ago. "No one knows if he's going to be okay long term."

Melody put her head in her hands, taking deep breaths, still trying to process everything that had happened before she was knocked out. "How is everyone?" She spoke, quickly picking her head up.

The two looked to each other again, not sure how they were going to tell her all of this. "Banner and Thor are gone." Steve spoke while looking down, playing with her fingers he was still holding.

She turned her head to the side, becoming even more scared than before. "Gone how?"

"They're missing." Tony spoke. "Fell right out of the sky." He shrugged, knowing there was no other way to describe what had happened to them. "Literally."

"And Coulson…" Steve trailed off when Melody turned to look at him.

"Did he fall out of the sky, too?" She asked with a slight chuckle. Their faces grew sad as they shared another glance, simply making Melody even more nervous. "Is he okay?" She asked in a soft voice.

"He's gone." Steve spoke in a somber voice. Melody didn't need extra explanation for that. She looked down, trying to process this information. There had been people she was close to that had died, but there was a list of people she thought would never die. Coulson being at the very top of that list. That's what hurt her the most about all of this.

"Everyone else is fine…" Tony began to shrug, knowing that not everyone was fine. "Physically."

"What about Loki?" Melody asked through clenched teeth, never wanting to hurt anyone more than she wanted to hurt Loki.

"He got away." Steve told her while looking down.

"You're making a pretty speedy recovery." Tony told her with a slight smile.

She looked to him, only one thing on her mind. "A speedy enough recovery for me to kill Loki with my bare hands?"

"Melody," Tony spoke in a soft voice. "You can't work yourself up – "

"Yes I can!" She finally snapped on him. "He took my boyfriend! Controlled him and made him do god knows what! And then he killed Coulson! One of my best friends!" Melody could finally feel the tears beginning to fall down her cheeks and she hated these tears. She hated showing any weakness. Especially on this ship where she was training to be a SHIELD agent. "I want to kill him!"

Just then, the doctor walked in, leaving Melody to forcefully wipe the tears from her face as Tony and Steve just sat back, trying to keep watching her. "Alright, Melody." The woman spoke as she began to move to the screen showing her vitals. "It looks like you're all ready to get out of here."

At the sound of that, Melody ripped the wires out of her, stood up from the bed and picked up her now bloodied uniform sitting in one of the chairs before heading out the door. "Thank god."

They all watched as she shut the door behind her with a loud slam, Tony and Steve standing up this time, trying to make sure she was okay, but they both knew that she was never going to be totally okay again after what had happened. "You just need to take it slow." The doctor finished, causing Tony and Steve to give each other a fearful look. She most definitely wasn't going to take it slow.

* * *

Steve, Tony and Melody sat around the conference table as Maria Hill stood off to the side with Director Fury and Supervisor Carter standing in front of them, letting the elephant sit in the room long enough to twist all of their hearts even more. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." He threw the Captain America trading cards down on the table, causing Melody to shut her eyes tight at the sight of the blood in the corner. "I guess he never did get you to sign them."

Steve looked the saddest out of all of them as he picked up one of the cards before throwing it back down. "We're dead in the air up here." Emily spoke, causing Melody to just look down and play with her fingers. That was only just causing Emily to worry about her daughter more. "Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor." She shrugged sadly as Tony kept his eyes down the whole time, finding it difficult to even look up. "I've got nothing for you."

"Lost my one good eye." Fury commented while shaking his head sadly. "Maybe I had that coming."

Emily looked over to Steve, thinking all about how their whole argument got started. How the speculation since all the Avengers stepped on the ship got started. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." She began to head towards the end of the conference table, making sure she was going to stand right behind Melody's chair. "We never put our chips on that number, though because we were playing something even riskier."

Tony and Melody shared a slight glance before going back to looking down. "There was an idea." Fury continued for Emily. "Stark and Barnes know this." Steve looked over to the two, but realized that they weren't even looking at each other. They were the two people that meant the most to each other and they weren't even _looking _at each other. "It was called the Avengers Initiative."

"The idea was to bring together a remarkable group of people to see if they could become something more." Emily spoke as she put her hands on the back of Melody's chair. "To see if they could work together when we needed them to." Tony and Steve looked to each other, ashamed, knowing they hadn't accomplished that part of the Avengers Initiative. "To fight the battles that we never could."

"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Fury spoke as he looked to Tony specifically.

All of them still refused to look at each other, Melody finding it hard to even sit there anymore. She stood up instantly, looking around at everyone else who was looking at her skeptically, and with worry plastered all over her face. She wasn't a hero. She didn't understand why she was brought in on this. Everyone else here was a hero, but her and ever since she stepped foot on that ship, she didn't feel good enough. And now, it was all starting to really get to her. She hurried off as Emily gave her a worried stare, taking a deep breath as she just got further from her. "Well," Fury spoke as he clasped his hands in front of him, knowing that the Avengers working was a huge long shot from now. "It's an old fashioned notion.

* * *

Natasha was leaned against Clint's infirmary door, just wanting to know if her best friend was going to be okay or not. She soon knew that this was a dumb thought. He wasn't going to be okay. Not for a long time, anyway. Someone was inside his brain, changing everything about him in a matter of seconds, pushing back the real him in his own mind, forcing him to go crazy. She knew what that was like. All too well.

Melody walked down the hall, right up to Natasha with a flustered face. Natasha looked her over before finally asking, "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I don't do that well." She told her with the shake of the head. She looked over to the infirmary door before sucking in a deep breath before looking back to Natasha. "How is he?"

Natasha began to break at the sound of her voice. "He's getting back to normal." Melody gave her that look, that look Natasha knew she couldn't be anything but honest with. "He's having a hard time adjusting to no longer being controlled." Melody shut her eyes, just wanting to have the normal Clint back in her arms. "But I'm sure that's all gonna change when he sets eyes on you." Melody sighed as Natasha gave her a slight smile while shaking her head from amazement at how far she had come. "You saved him."

Melody rolled her eyes at her while shaking her head. "The blow to the head did."

"He was wavering before that blow to the head." She spoke while shaking her head, wishing Melody was able to see what everyone else saw in her. "You're a hero."

Melody took a deep sigh, her eyes going down while shaking her head. "I'm not a hero."

Natasha opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but having nothing to say that would make her feel better about herself. "Melody – " They were both stopped by the sound of footsteps, stopping right when they got to their hall. They both turned, looking to see Emily standing there. Melody took a deep breath as she stared at her mother, knowing she was going to have to talk to her even if that was the last thing she wanted to do. "I'll give you two some privacy." Natasha spoke before weaving out of their way and down the other hall, leaving just the two of them.

Melody shook her head at her mother, going back to thinking about how not only SHIELD lied to her, but her mother was the main one that lied to her and she was done with all of it. Melody turned around quickly, hurrying down the other end of the hall, just to get away from her. "Melody!" She called out as she began to hurry after her, feeling this worry inside that she was actually going to lose her daughter. "Melody, wait!"

"I am _so_ sick and tired of lies and secrets!" She spoke in a desperate voice, knowing tears were emerging. "I want out of this. All of this!"

Emily stopped walking, but Melody just kept storming away. "Even your relationship with me?"

Melody also stopped, not even truly believing this was all actually happening. She turned around, throwing her hands in the air, not really caring about what was going to happen at this point. "Might as well since all you've done since we started a relationship was keep more secrets and tell more lies!" Emily looked at the floor, thinking about something that had been kept secret for far too long. "Why did you leave?" She asked in the smallest voice possibly. She looked up at Emily, rolling her eyes at her fearful look, knowing exactly what her mother was thinking. "And no dancing around it. You're telling me. Now."

Emily sighed deeply, wanting to keep this from her, but at the same time knowing this had gone on long enough. She got a slight smile on her face. "Let's take a walk."

Melody rolled her eyes at Emily and turned around, beginning to play with her violet nails. "We're on a ship. There's no place to walk."

Emily moved directly behind her and put her hands on her shoulders, smiling the way she only smiled for Melody. "Then we can walk up and down this hallway."

Melody rolled her eyes slightly – feeling like she was doing a lot of that lately – as Emily put her arm around her and began to walk with her down the hallway. "What made you leave Dad and me?" Melody asked instantly, wanting to know the answer, but her voice was also quiet, knowing she was bringing up a really sore topic.

"It's a memory you really like to block out." Emily whispered. "A memory that's really hard for me to think about." Melody looked to her with a concerned face, noticing how dark her face got. "You were about five, and I was in the middle of a mission. When I would go on missions, your father would avoid working on his projects so he could take care of you."

"What was your mission?" Melody asked as they turned around and began making their way back up the hallway.

Emily turned to her with a slight smile, wondering how she was going to feel about all of this. "I was after a young spy from the KGB." Melody turned her head, thinking of the only person she knew like that. "Under the alias of Black Widow." Melody completely stopped walking, paralyzed, hardly being able to believe how many people she had connections to in the Avengers Initiative. "And I was working with a young, new agent." Melody's eyes grew wide, knowing what she was going to say, but at the same time, wanting the confirmation of her thoughts. "Barton. And later on will go by the alias of Hawkeye."

Melody put her hands on her head, taking a huge breath. "This is insane."

"I know." Emily whispered as she rubbed her back.

She turned to her mother, knowing she still hadn't been given her answer. "What happened?" She asked as they began walking again.

"I got to go home for a couple of days because her trail was extremely cold." Melody let out a light chuckle. Of course the trail was cold. This was Natasha Romanoff they were talking about. "So, I was with you and James on a Sunday, and it was really nice." Melody felt a nervousness in her as she watched her mother, realizing by the look on her face how hard it was for her to talk about this. "And…we were attacked."

Melody nodded, finally understanding why it had been kept secret for so long. "By who?" She whispered, even if she already knew the answer to that question.

"Natasha." She looked up at her mother with soft eyes, the fact dawning on her that her disappearance wasn't to get away from her or her father, but to protect them. "She had almost killed you, and she would have if I hadn't gotten to her first."

Melody stopped walking for a moment, remembering something random about a day like that. "You guys sent me to Tony's for the rest of the day and I spent the night." Emily nodded, causing Melody to turn her head in confusion. "Mom," she spoke in a cautious voice. "What happened after that?"

She sighed as she looked down at her feet. "Your dad and I had a really long talk after that. And we both decided that you weren't safe with me in the house. So…it was hard, but I left."

Melody looked up at her mom, ascertain that all of this anger directed toward her was wrong. The entire time, she was just trying to keep her safe. "That's why Natasha has always felt so familiar." She whispered to herself.

"Honey," Emily told her while rubbing her head. "That's why Natasha is so nice to you." Melody blinked a couple of times, realizing this was all connected. Everything had been connected, and everything had been effecting her since before she was born. All of it had been leading up to the Avengers. It kind of made her chuckle. It was almost like it was destiny, just waiting for all the pieces to fall into play. "She feels guilty that she tried to kill you before."

Melody looked to her mother, knowing she had to go to Natasha right now. That was the only option. Emily nodded, knowing what she had to do and after her approval, Melody took off.

She ran to the control room, knowing that's exactly where Natasha would be. She would want to get away after everything that happened. Get lost in her work and the perfect place to do that would be the control room. Right when she halted to a stop from that run, she immediately saw that curly red bob haircut and ran to her. "Natasha," she called out. When she turned around, she looked confused, but Melody didn't even give her a chance to speak. "You didn't have to feel guilty." Her eyes widened, shocked that she actually knew what had happened. That was the only thing she could have been talking about. "You were practically forced, but you're good now, and I don't feel any resentment.

All Natasha could do was stare at the blonde. This was something she had felt guilty about every time she saw the girl, and Melody had become her friend. She was glad she knew now. She had come to love this girl, even if at the beginning, it seemed impossible. "Thank you." Natasha told her in the most sincere way she possibly could. That was all she could think to do because she really did help her. She had lifted the biggest weight off of her shoulders. "Thank you."

Melody knew by now that Natasha was far from a hugger, but that was all Melody wanted to do. She pulled her in for the biggest hug she could give. Natasha would never admit it, but it was the best thing she had ever received.

* * *

Melody sat in the nearest chair as Clint shook his head as hard as he could. This was the hardest part out of all of it. Fighting the control. Loki was still controlling him, Clint had just broken through that control. Now, it was a hard thing to shake. He looked at Melody and saw red, remembering the command to kill her. He hated that feeling. He never wanted to hurt her, and now, that was the only thing on his mind. "Clint," Melody spoke. His eyes opened at the sound of her voice. He just needed to listen to the sound of her voice. "You're gonna be all right."

"You know that?" He asked her harshly as he struggled, trying to get out of his arm restraints. "Is that what you know?"

Melody bit her lip, feeling this to be the hardest thing to watch. He was always so strong and now he was breaking in front of her. She stood up to pour him a glass of water, her smell lingering in Clint's nose, bringing him even more back to earth than he had ever been. "I gotta…gotta flush him out."

"We don't have that long." Melody told him honestly as she turned to him. "It's gonna take time."

Clint sighed and moaned as he looked up at her, the two finally making eye contact. Clint could feel even more of that control melt away after that one look. "Melody," He began softly. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play?" Melody was hurting from the desperation in his voice and that look on his face as his eyes went downcast. The utter look of sheer pain. It was breaking her. "Pull you out and send somebody else in?" He looked up at her, afraid of what she was going to think when he asked her this because she was his only one left. "Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

He began to take deep breaths at the look of her sympathetic stare. She began to run her fingers through his hair, bringing him to ecstasy as he focused on his breathing. That's what he had to do to stay in control. Focus on Melody and focus on his breathing. "Why am I back?" She moved to sit down on the side of his bed, causing them to make eye contact again. That magical eye contact that they hadn't shared in so long. "How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration." Melody smiled at his blank face. Clint had always been wicked smart, but big words were never his thing. "I hit you really hard in the head."

He chuckled slightly, looking up at her with a grateful smile. "Thanks."

Melody leaned forward, beginning to unbuckle his restraints as Clint just kept staring at her, multiple questions burning his mind. "Mel," She looked to him as she went for the last restraint. "How many agents – "

"Don't." She spoke instantly, stopping dead in her tracks just to make eye contact with him. He had to know this wasn't his fault. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint." He swallowed hard, not being able to take his eyes off of her icy blues. "This is Loki." She shook her head, finding it hard to believe that this whole subject had become normal. "This is monsters and magic and nothing you were ever trained for."

Clint nodded, his thoughts going back to his captor. "Loki, he got away?"

Melody looked down at his dark voice, taking a deep breath before answering him with a nod. "And I don't suppose you know where?"

She looked up at him just as he was rubbing his aching wrists from the restraints. Melody was so focused on his arms at that point. It had felt like a long, long time since they were together and every part of her brain was retracing every bit of his body for her memory, remembering everything associated with every part. "I didn't need to know." His voice wasn't focused because he was doing the same thing Melody was doing. "I didn't ask." Melody got up quickly, feeling the electricity between the two rush through them again. They had to focus on the issue at hand first. Then they would focus on each other. She began to look out the door window, trying to remind herself to focus. "He's gonna make his play soon, though. Today."

Melody turned around quickly, putting her thumb to her mouth, beginning to bite her nail. "We've got to stop him."

Clint looked her up and down. "Who's we?"

"I don't know." She spoke as she threw her hands in the air. "Whoever's left?"

Clint nodded, his face growing darker. "Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket I'd sleep better, I suppose."

Melody smiled, moving closer to him, sitting next to him on the bed, bumping him slightly with her body. "Now you sound like you."

He gave her a bright smile. A smile he hadn't gave in a really long time. Even before being taken over by Loki. With that smile, he caught a glimpse of her wrist, his smile getting even brighter. "You still wear your bracelet."

She looked down at the Captain America shield resting on a silver chain before looking back to him. "Of course I do." She told him with a shrug. "You couldn't imagine how excited Steve was to see it."

He let out a little chuckle before moving his head to get a better look at her face. She was different. Anyone who was close to her would be able to tell. He just wanted to know when it started. "You don't sound like yourself." Her face grew serious as he bumped into her, the same way she had done to him. "You're a scientist, you think logistics, and now you want to wade into war." She looked down, trying to look away from where Clint would be able to see her. Damn, she forgot how well he could read her. "What's going on, Mel?" She looked back to him, her face getting soft. "You know you can tell me anything." She looked down, not sure if she wanted to tell him all of this. "What did he do to you?" He asked more harshly this time.

She took a few breaths, feeling flustered. "He didn't – I just…" She trailed off, not knowing where to start.

Clint moved closer to her, one of his hands snaking into hers as he put his chin on her shoulder. "Melody." He whispered, knowing it would pry her open like a clam.

"He killed Coulson." She spoke in a soft voice. Clint's eyes went wide as he picked his head up from her shoulder. The two weren't close like he and Melody were, but Clint had greatly respected him and he knew how close he was to Melody. "He took control of you." She clenched her teeth because of the tears coming to her eyes. She hated crying. Absolutely hated it. "That was one of the worst things I had ever gone through." Clint felt so much guilt knowing how much pain he had caused her even if it wasn't his fault. She turned to him with a certain spark in her eyes. One that he knew all too well. "I want revenge." He nodded, understanding where she was coming from completely. "No," She shook her head, thinking of a better word to use to describe all she wanted from Loki. "I want to _avenge_."

He gave her a slight smile before running his hand through her golden hair, remembering how much he missed this. With that, she fell into his arms, letting him just hold her as the two breathed, not saying it, but knowing what each wanted to say without saying it. They missed each other. They love each other. They wanted the other back.

* * *

Tony stood in the area of the ship where Loki was being kept. Where Coulson died. Just wanting to be by himself as he looked down on the lower level. Everything was just falling apart. Melody was broken. Clint was broken. He was broken. Everyone on this ship was broken and they were all just expected to pick up and carry on.

Steve began to walk into the same area on the opposite side of Tony. He knew he was in here and he knew that if he wanted a relationship with Melody then he had to have a relationship with Tony. At least a friendly one. "Was he married?" Steve asked, knowing they were all thinking about Coulson in this time and he just wished he knew more of him like they all did.

"No." Tony spoke instantly, taking a heavy breath with his speech. "There was a...uh...cellist." He looked down, realizing that he hadn't gotten to know the man that much either. He was so worried about himself he didn't even bother with Coulson. That's what hurt him the most. "I think."

"I'm sorry." Steve spoke as he crossed his arms, leaning against the wall and looking down. "He seemed like a good man."

Tony let out a little chuckle as he turned to look at Steve. "He was an idiot."

Steve looked up at him, appalled that he would say something like this. "Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." He told him with a shrug as he began to move towards him.

"He was doing his job." Steve said almost forcefully, knowing that Tony was grieving, but he wasn't going to have him talk about Coulson like that.

Tony scoffed as he continued walking closer to Steve. "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should of…" He trailed off, looking down at his feet, not knowing what else to say. He was just hurting and this was the best way he could think to get this hurt out.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve told him as he began to move towards him.

"Right," Tony told him with an eye roll. "How did that work for him?"

Steve watched him as he moved right past him, finally realizing why he was acting this way. "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers!" Tony yelled, finally turning around to face him, finally getting angry after bubbling it all up. Tony stopped, realizing what he was doing, realizing that this was one of the things Melody hated about him. He took a deep breath, getting rid of the anger on his face, knowing the same thing Steve did. They had to have a friendly relationship if they wanted to keep Melody. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I." Steve spoke honestly with the shake of the head. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we've got to put that behind us and get this done." Tony looked back to where Coulson had died, looking down at the bloodstain, knowing they'd bring Loki down for Coulson. That was the only way. "Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list – "

"He made it personal." Tony spoke, finally looking away from the bloodstain.

"That's not the point." Steve spoke in a confused voice.

"That is the point." Tony sounded like he was on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery. "That _is_ Loki's point. He hit us all where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Steve realized.

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" He snapped, realizing it. "_That's _what he wants! He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right." Steve spoke as Tony began moving around excitedly as he thought. "I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"But that's just previews." He spoke as he clapped his hands together, getting excited. "This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers. He wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…" Tony trailed off as Steve raised his eyebrows, both realizing exactly what he was describing. His own building. "Son of a bitch." The two began to run off, knowing one thing. They needed Melody.

_**I hope you all liked this one! And I'm thinking about writing a Melody Scribble going more in detail about the incident with Natasha going after Emily and the family. Everyone, remember to review!**_


	9. Avengers, Assemble!

Melody paced around Clint's room, taking deep breaths. After their moment, she didn't know what to do. They sat there, holding each other for the past thirty minutes and it was nice. It was the best thing she had experienced in the last few months, but then Clint ruined it by getting up to get away from her. The truth was, Clint wasn't sure how to react to this either. He didn't know if she wanted him back. If she was ready for him. Melody didn't know if he wanted her back. If he was ready for her. Now, the two of them were in an awkward situation that wouldn't be awkward if the two were just open with their feelings. But they could never be that way. They had both been through too much to wear their heart on a sleeve.

Steve walked through the door, alerting Melody instantly. She stopped her pacing and looked to her great uncle with those big, innocent eyes. Steve took a deep breath, feeling awful that she had been in battles before. She was twenty-three and they were about to step into war. "It's time to go."

"Go where?" She asked with such certainty. He knew that she would follow him anywhere. That's why she was the best person he could think of to take into battle.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

Melody looked at him like he was insane. She was a scientist. Not a pilot. The door to the bathroom opened, causing the two to turn to see Clint wiping his hands off with a towel. "She can't." Clint smiled slightly as he glanced at Melody. He was surprised she learned the coordination that came with wielding knives. "But I can."

Steve turned to Melody with a worried face, none of them even expected Hawkeye to be ready for this fight. Melody simply nodded as Clint moved forward, knowing Melody's respect wasn't something that was taken easily. He was ready to meet the person who had taken it in a matter of a few days. Also her great uncle who was probably going to watch him like a hawk if he continued his relationship with Melody. "I'm Clint Barton." He put his hand out, meeting Steve's in a firm shake. "It's nice to finally meet you, sir. And what an honor it is."

Steve smiled that wonder boy smile, already knowing he was going to like him. "You gotta suit?" Clint met him with a smile as he nodded, the two releasing hands as Melody looked back and forth. He was winning Steve over just like he had won Tony over. "Then suit up."

* * *

Thor, he got his hammer. Steve, he got his shield. Clint, he got his arrows. Natasha, she got her spy gear. Melody, she got her knives. And Tony, he put on his helmet. Thor summoned the thunder that obeyed him, ready to find the Avengers and finally put a stop to his brother's madness. Tony put on his suit with the new repairs, getting ready to fly out of the helicarrier to protect not only his building, but everyone he cares about.

The ones who couldn't fly, they made their way side by side to their own jet. The four of them got stares from all of the SHIELD workers, knowing that these people were their only shot. Some saluted, others smiled and some even clapped. It made what they were doing all worth the while. They were protecting the world. Not just for each other, but for everyone else and everyone they love.

Right as they boarded one of the jets, the man working on it moved to Steve and Melody – who were leading the group – with a panicked face. "You guys aren't authorized to be in here."

"Son," Steve spoke before he could even finish his last word. "Just don't." The other three exchanged glances, knowing that not only were they going to do something amazing for the whole world, they were going to do something amazing for each other. Finally be a team.

* * *

Fury and Emily stood where they would be able to watch the aircraft that was coming out of the helicarrier from the bottom levels. "Director, Supervisor," Maria Hill spoke as she moved towards them, wanting to finally ask them a certain question that had been on her mind since this morning. They both turned their ears to her, wanting to listen, but at the same time, still wanting to watch for what they hoped was coming. "Those cards," Emily looked up, taking a deep breath, knowing that if Melody found out what they did like Maria had, her daughter would probably never speak to her again. "They were in Coulson's locker...not in his jacket."

Nick pulled the cards up, studying them, thinking about how he and Emily got together and painted the edges of those mint condition cards red before showing them to the Avengers. "They needed a push." He answered simply even if they both felt awful for doing this to all of them. It had to be done.

And when they saw the Iron Man suit fly off followed by a jet, Emily smiled slightly. Their push had worked. It was risky. It was mean and it could cost Emily her relationship with her daughter, but it worked. And as long as no one found out, it would continue to work. "Good luck, Melody." She turned back to Maria, all emotion gone from her face in a matter of seconds. "Get our communications back up whatever you have to do." Maria nodded, admiring the way she handled her emotion, but hating the way she manipulated the people she loved. "I want eyes on everything."

But this was Maria's job. She couldn't let her emotions about her boss get in the way of that. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

Tony flew into New York first. He sped to Stark Towers to find Eric Selvig on the roof, messing with the Tesseract. Tony knew that in no time, they would open up a portal. He knew this man wasn't able to control himself, but he had to talk to him sternly. This man was about to single handedly ruin New York. "Shut it down, Dr. Selvig."

He turned around to look at Tony with those crazy, controlled eyes and Tony knew he was already too far gone. He wouldn't shake this off as easily as Clint was doing. This was going to be a long impression. "It's too late! It can't stop now." He turned back to the Tesseract, even more excited than before. "He wants to show us something. A new universe."

"Okay," Tony spoke, not fully believing him. He thought he was going crazy so he picked his hands up and shot at the device holding the Tesseract. It grew its own force field, causing Tony to be shoved back by his own energy, resulting in an explosion like sound, alarming everyone in New York.

Tony caught himself, straightening out as he floated in the air, lowering himself down to his own building. "It's unbreachable." Jarvis reported as Tony continued to look to Dr. Selvig and the portal that was about to be opened.

"Yeah," Tony breathed out, only getting more stressed out about the entire situation. "Got that." Tony turned himself so he was looking at the outdoor balcony of Stark Towers and there, waiting for him was Loki. He smiled up at him, taking pride in all he was doing here as Tony's face turned into a glare. "Plan B."

He landed on his Iron Man pad, which would take off his suit as he walked into the penthouse apartment, still looking at Loki. "Sir," Jarvis announced. "Mark 7 isn't ready for deployment."

"Then skip the spinning rims." Tony spoke angrily, only getting more anxious by the minute. "We're on the clock."

The two walked into the apartment, not taking their eyes off each other for the entire walk. It was like they were calling each other in for a duel. "Please," Loki spoke right when the suit was done disassembling and he was walking down the steps to get to the same level as the god. "Tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

"Uh," Tony spoke with his hands, his genius plan burning in his mind. "Actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

Loki began to chuckle, finding it hard to believe that this human thought he could just threaten him with nothing. "You should have left your suit on for that."

"Yeah," Tony spoke with a shrug, continuing down the steps, slowly, wanting to take his time and have this play out perfectly. "It's seen a bit of mileage since you've got the blue glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

Loki looked down at his scepter, smiling deviously before looking back to Tony. "Stalling me won't change anything."

"No." Tony corrected as he pulled out a glass and his nearby bourbon. "Threatening." He looked back to the god, looking him up and down in the most casual way he could in this situation. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

Loki turned around to look out the window, tired with their banter, only wanting to see him be destroyed. "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that." He turned back to Tony with a wide smile. "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." He pulled the drink to his lips, shrugging at the look of confusion on Loki's face. "It's what we call ourselves. Sort of like a team. Earth's Mightiest Heroes type of thing."

"Yes." Loki smiled as he moved towards him. "I've met them."

Tony smiled, letting out a little laugh. He met all of them all right. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that." He turned his head to the side, only thinking of how else he was going to threaten the almighty god. "Let's do a headcount here." He put up his fingers, counting them all out. "Your brother the demigod," Loki cringed at the idea. At this moment, he hated his older brother. "A super soldier," He continued, putting on the bracelets that would put the suit on for him while Loki was still distraught from the thought of his brother. "A living legend who kind of lives up the legend, a man with breathtaking anger issues, a couple of master assassins, the smartest young mind on the planet who is pretty decent at the art of knives." Loki rolled his eyes at the dramatization of Melody, knowing that was exactly what he was going to do. "And you," He pointed to Loki as he turned back to him. "Managed to piss off every single one of them.

Loki moved toward him as Tony finished off his drink, the smile on his devious face only growing wider. "That was the plan."

"Not a very good plan." He put his glass back down on the counter, moving towards him, determined to play out his plan. "When they come…and they will," Tony hated that they weren't even here yet. "They'll come for you."

"I have an army." All of the jokiness was gone from Loki's face as Tony got closer to him.

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh," Loki spoke, just wanting to make him mad like Tony was doing to him. "I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point." Tony told him with the shake of the head. "There's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top." Loki's glare only deepened as he talked, beginning to get an idea. "_Maybe _your army comes and _maybe_ it's too much for us, but it's all on you because if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

Loki's glare deepened as he moved toward him, the spur of the moment idea about to be put into play. "How will your friends have time for me," He began to pull up his scepter, making Tony very nervous as they were only inches away from each other. "When they're too busy fighting you." He put the scepter to his chest, but nothing happened as it touched his arc reactor. Tony let out a slight smile as he looked back up to Loki who just tried it again. "This usually works." He spoke dumbfounded.

"Well," Tony shrugged with the pull of the lips. "Performance issues. Not uncommon." Loki looked up to him, burning a hole with his eyes. "One out of five." Loki grabbed him by the neck before throwing him over to the side.

Tony let out deep breaths as he pushed himself back up. "Jarvis," He mumbled as he stood up, knowing if he was going to give out more blows like this, he would need his suit soon. "Any time now."

Loki grabbed him by the neck again, pulling him closer as Tony struggled to breath. "You will all fall before me." Loki promised.

"Deploy." Tony called out as the closet began to open to send the suit for him, but Loki just squeezed his neck tighter. "Deploy." He tried again, his voice coming out weak before Loki threw him through the window to let him fall to his death with no protection.

Loki turned around after he was done, but the Iron Man suit flew by, sending him to fall to the floor as the suit went straight for its master. The suit crashed through the window, turning into a form of aircraft, putting the thrusters on full blast. Tony began to get nervous as he got even closer to the ground just as the suit began to read his bracelets before clasping onto his body and locking him in. He pushed off the ground with his thrusters, taking a deep breath at how close he had come to hitting the pavement.

He flew back up to the top of his building, having some more words he wanted to exchange with Loki. "And there's one other person you pissed off." Tony spoke, looking to him, knowing that now he had the upper hand. "His name is Phil." Loki immediately picked up his scepter, but Tony easily just blasted him with energy, sending him on his back just as the portal opened up.

Tony looked up to see Loki's alien army begin to descend on Manhattan. "Right," Tony spoke to himself, trying to stay as casual as possible through this instead of freaking out. "Army."

He flew to the opening of the portal, trying to take on as many of them as possible, but they just kept on coming. Most of them had made it all the way down streets, tearing up everything in sight, sending the people into a terrified frenzy, releasing chaos and havoc on the human race.

* * *

Loki looked down at the city below him as explosions scattered the whole place. He smiled down, triumphant. He knew that if this all worked out, he would be one step closer to ruling earth.

Thor landed on the balcony right below Loki, causing him to turn to look at his older brother, a smirk resting on his lips. "Loki," Thor yelled, not wanting to reason with him anymore. Only wanting to stop him. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!"

"You can't." Loki spoke, pointing his scepter at him. "There is no stopping it. There is only war."

"So be it." Thor's eyes narrowed as Loki let out a growl before pouncing on him. The two began to fight. Loki's scepter vs Thor's hammer, their fight getting so huge, they tore off the K in Stark's name.

* * *

Melody looked out the window of the jet, tapping her fingers nervously as she saw everything happening below them. Police were flooding the streets as Tony flew through the sky, trying to distract the aliens as best as he could. "Clint," Melody called from the window as Steve moved towards her to look out the window as well. "You might want to find some place to land real quickly."

"Mel," Clint spoke from the front, getting slightly annoyed. "It's not like there's helicopter pads on the streets of Manhattan."

Natasha rolled her eyes at the two as she looked to the camera Melody had set up, connecting their communications to Tony's. "Stark, we're headed north east."

"What?" Tony asked accusingly, becoming even more overwhelmed as more aliens began chasing him. "Did you stop for drive-through?" Natasha looked to him with a glare, making up her mind that she was going to let that one slide since he was stressed out at the moment. "Swing that part. I'm gonna lay them out for you."

Tony flew by the fighting brothers and by the Empire State Building to get in front of the jet. Both Natasha and Clint pulled out the guns on the jet, hitting all the aliens chasing Tony as he flew away unscathed. "Keep flying." Melody told Tony through the radio as she moved to the space in between the two seats. "We've got your back."

Tony let out a small chuckle. He always knew she was a natural born leader. "Let's keep them busy."

They continued to fly through the air, taking out all the aliens they saw until Clint slowed down at the sight of that green and gold outfit. "Mel, Nat."

The two took a deep breath as they looked to the two fighting gods. "I see them." Natasha finally spoke.

Clint began to turn towards them, causing Melody to take a deep breath. "Clint, we've got to prioritize."

Clint shook his head at her, his finger twitching at the thought of pulling the trigger. "This is my priority right now."

He began to shoot at Loki, but it wasn't doing anything to him. It was only making him madder. He aimed his scepter at the jet, blowing out one of their engines, causing everyone to grab onto something. That only made Thor fight his brother harder than before. He wasn't going to destroy his friends here.

The jet began to fall sideways as Clint tried to straighten it out. "I'm gonna kill you if we survive." Melody spoke as she began to stagger, trying to keep herself upright.

"Not the first time I heard that." He spoke through a struggled voice, putting all of his strength into trying to land the thing. He crashed into the balcony of a building as they were on their way down, shocking everyone who was around as they hit the sidewalk hard. It went forward, tearing up the rest of the sidewalk as the four of them clenched their teeth when they got closer to a huge building that would collapse if they hit it hard enough. They all took a breath as it slowed to a stop, only tapping the building. "See," Clint spoke as he threw his headphones off while unbuckling his seat. "It all worked out."

The door opened up, letting Steve and Natasha out, but Melody waited for Clint, giving him a glare as he made his way to her. "Come on." He told her with a shrug before putting his hand on the small of her back to guide her out with him.

The four of them ran through the battlefield that had become New York City, trying to keep their mind focused on what to do in that moment than think about every single thing that was happening. "We've got to get back up there." Steve spoke as they jumped right over the debris form a destroyed taxi, making their way back to Stark Towers when a sound interrupted them all.

The four stopped dead in their tracks as they looked up at the huge thing. A ginormous alien made its way through the portal, causing their stomachs to drop all the way down to their feet. It looked like a large eel flying through the air with spikes all over its body. It flew right by them, giving them a close up look they weren't sure they wanted. As it flew through the air, multiple aliens jumped out from it, clinging to the windows and going after the humans inside it. "Oh, my god." Melody whispered as more aliens on flying cars followed it. Clint's hand went around hers as she gripped it tight from the fear of what was about to happen to all of them.

"Stark," Steve called out through his radio. "Are you seeing this?"

"I'm seeing." Tony spoke as he flew after the thing, knowing this was going to be their biggest threat. "Still working on believing." Steve looked down to see Clint and Melody's hands locked together, taking him by surprise. He almost forgot they loved each other. This was going to be hard for him to accept. "Where's Banner? Has he showed up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve asked in a confused voice as Tony bit his lip. He knew nobody else was going to wait on him like he was.

"Just keep my posted." He ended the talk with Steve, switching to Jarvis. "Find me a soft spot."

* * *

Thor had Loki down on the floor, pulling his collar to him as he made him look at all the explosions plaguing the city. "Look at this. Look around you." As Loki looked out, something passed over his face. Fear. It gave Thor the hope that he could break through to him. "You think this madness will end with your rule?"

Loki turned back to him, that face of fear still all over his face. "It's too late." He looked back to the city, clenching his teeth at all of this. "It's too late to stop it."

"No." Thor gave his younger brother a slight smile. "We can. Together."

Loki's face softened, a bright smile spreading across his lips. That's when he decided now was the time to do it. He stuck a knife in Thor's belly, leaving it sitting inside as he fell to the ground. "Sentiment." Loki whispered before Thor got up, pushing him back and throwing him on the balcony.

Loki took this turn to roll off the balcony, landing on one of the alien jets just in time for Thor to see him fly off. With defeat, Thor pulled the small knife out of his stomach before picking up his hammer to join the rest of his team on the battlefield.

* * *

Steve hurried over to Natasha, Clint and Melody who were huddled behind a taxi, getting together their game plan. "We've got civilians trapped in the roof." Clint reported when Steve sat down next to them. More alien ships made their way past them, blowing up more cars on the street. Melody peeked out from behind the taxi, watching as civilians ran for their lives while the cars behind them were exploding. She turned back to face Steve, taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She couldn't spend time really thinking about what was happening. She had to focus on the task in front of her. That's the only way she would be able to stop herself from a full blown panic attack. "There are more down there."

Something hit the taxi they were hiding behind, causing Natasha to stand up to send off bullets at the aliens before ducking back down to the group and running to another taxi to cover Clint as he shot off arrows. Melody and Steve looked to the two, knowing they had the best work when it came to a battle buddy. Then, the two looked to each other, knowing that they had the best work when it came to each other's battle buddy. "We got this." Natasha commented, taking them out of their stare. She nodded to the two, knowing the exact thing that Melody and Steve were _realizing_. "Go."

Melody then turned to look at Clint, beginning to worry about him. She had never specifically gone into battle with him, and now she understood this insane anxiety he got whenever she had to go into some insane battle. It was agonizing knowing that at any moment, the two could be ripped away from each other when they were so close at coming back to each other. "You think you can hold them off?" Steve asked, tearing them both out of their intense look.

That's when Clint began to smile, trying to let Melody know that she didn't need to be worried, but even though it helped, that worry would never go away. That's what they got for being in love. "Captain," Clint began as he turned to look at Steve, feeling his old self beginning to kick back in for the first time since Loki began his hold on him. "It would be my genuine pleasure." Clint stood up, not even missing a beat as he hit the alien closest to him right in the eye.

Melody began to bite her lip. Now she wasn't only in pain and fear of their imminent demise, she was now turned on. Scared and horny was not the best thing to be before going to fight a whole bunch of aliens.

Steve and Melody look at each other as Natasha stood up to join Clint, Melody taking a deep breath, knowing it was now or never. "Elders first." Steve gave her an unamused face, now seeing the Stark in her.

He jumped up, jumping over the taxi with Melody following him. Together they jumped down to the bus under the bridge, landing with a roll. Melody ran forward while Steve covered her from behind with his shield from all the explosions trying to catch up with them. The two ended up jumping off the bus right when the last explosion got to them, barely missing it when they hit the ground.

"You know," Steve began as he looked back, still shocked at how close they got, the two continuing their running. "If it means anything," Melody looked to him with a confused face, not having any idea what he was going to say. "I approve."

Melody gave him a slight smile as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. It did mean something. It meant the world to her that Steve liked Clint. They were both so important to her and she needed them to like each other. But she wasn't going to show it. "Shut up."

* * *

Clint ran over to the abandoned bus. Cars sat in the way of the entrance so he was forced to pull the passengers from the windows of the bus. Natasha was covering him, shooting any alien that came their way as Clint worked on getting the bus doors open. And once he got it, he went right back to destroying every single alien he could with Natasha.

She shot off bullets from her pistols as Clint shot off the arrows from his bow. Natasha turned to him slightly, not taking her eye off the ball. "It's just like Budapest all over again."

Clint scrunched his brow, feeling like she was insane for even thinking that as he continued shooting off arrows. "You and I remember Budapest very differently."

"So," Natasha began with a slight smirk on her face. "Have you kissed her yet?"

Clint sighed while rolling his eyes, the smirk now spreading on his face before looking up to see all the other aliens coming through the portal. "Shut up."

* * *

The police officers tried their best to protect the people, but they didn't even know what was going on. They shot their guns, but it didn't do much help. It was all overwhelming, the sergeant was just standing in the middle of the street now, watching everything play out with utter confusion on his face. A younger cop hurried to him, out of breath, looking just as confused as his sergeant. "We're trying to scramble together the National Guard." He reported urgently.

The two dodged one of the alien blows before looking back to each other. "The National Guard?!" The sergeant asked incredulously. "Does the army know what's happening here?"

The younger cop looked down, realizing something. "Do we?" His sergeant stared at him for a moment before they were interrupted by a banging sound.

They both looked up with their guns ready, but stopped at the sight of the idolized, living legend, Captain America and the gorgeous, rich, genius, Melody Barnes. "You need men in these buildings." Steve commanded as he pointed to the buildings behind him. "There are people inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire." The sergeant looked around, finding this all so hard to believe. Was this even real? "You take them to the basements or the subway, but you keep them off the streets."

Melody took some deep breaths with her hands on her hips, looking around to find out what else needed to be done. "And I need a perimeter," her eyes rolled back, running a map of Manhattan through her mind. "As far back as 39th. That's where they're really gonna tear the city up and everyone inside that perimeter needs to be out of the battle zone."

"Why the hell should I take orders from the two of you?" Melody looked from the direction she was looking to stare down at the sergeant.

Her eyes were burning holes until there was an explosion right behind them. Both Steve and Melody sat up as two aliens went flying towards them. Melody simply threw her knife in the air, changing grips before plunging it into the thing's chest. Steve, he blocked his alien's weapon with his shield, punching it before it could stab him. Melody dragged the knife down the thing's body before ripping it out and kicking it off the taxi they were standing on and down the street.

Steve looked to what was coming to Melody, knowing he couldn't get in front of her in time to protect her, so he threw her his shield as she threw him one of her knives. Melody used the edge of the shield to chop off the alien's weapon as Steve went for the back of the alien's neck with her knife, taking out its control system in one stab. Melody hit the thing with the shield, sending it to the ground with a large thud, the weapon still in her hand as both Melody and Steve took deep breaths from how tiring that was, both giving the sergeant an annoyed glare at his arrogance.

That was enough to tell the sergeant to trust these two. He immediately turned around, going for his radio. "I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets."

"You got it." The younger cop called out, still taken aback with Steve Rogers and Melody Barnes.

"I want to shut off the perimeter all the way down of 39th street and make sure all those people in that perimeter are underground and out of there."

Both Melody and Steve glanced at each other while the sergeant made his way away from them. A smile spread across both of their faces. Cops.

* * *

Tony flew after the snake like creature, sending off as many missiles as he could at once, but it did nothing to it. Actually, when it saw where the missiles were coming from, it got angry. Tony floated in the air for a moment, taking in what was actually happening. "Well," He sighed out before figuring out where he was going. "We got its attention." He began to dash the other way, not wanting to end up as an alien meal. "What's step two?"

Both Steve and Melody ran back to where they had left Clint and Natasha just in time to see Natasha take one of the alien's guns and Clint to be knocked down on his back. Melody's face twisted into one of pain when she saw Clint trying to push the alien back with all of his mite. "Clint." She whispered before running to him. With no remorse, she jumped on the alien's back before plunging a dagger into its neck, destroying it in that one hit. She pulled the alien off of him, causing Clint to look her up and down wide eyed. This was not the girl Clint had saw a year ago. She was so much more. So much better than before. "Are you okay?"

He gave her a slight smile, returning hers before she offered her hand to help him up. "Better now." He stood up, looking her over with a smile before stringing his bow up to hit an alien making its way from behind her.

That broke Melody out of their moment completely. She threw a dagger at one before deciding she would just be wasting knives. She pulled a pistol from her belt and began shooting down the aliens one by one.

There was one she shot that just wouldn't go down. She began to shake, making her bullets practically useless since they weren't hitting the right place. Her breath increased and she really felt all of it. She felt how insane this all was. This was really crazy. They were fighting aliens on the streets of New York. The alien was only getting closer, causing her to really let out some deep breaths before the back of Steve's shield was in her face and she could hear the clanging and fighting on the other side.

She blinked a couple of times, feeling herself come back to the situation. She turned around, ready to fight all the aliens that were coming for her, but was stopped at the sight of lightning striking them to the ground. She let out a few shocked gasps at his power when he landed only a few feet away from her. No wonder he was the "almighty" superhero. "The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." He spoke as he moved toward her with Steve hurrying to stand right behind her.

"Thor's right." Tony spoke from the radio, causing them all to look up to find out where he was now. "We gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked while looking out at all the aliens. This seemed pretty impossible.

"As a team." Steve spoke without hesitation, letting them all know that they had a leader here.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor claimed as Melody rolled her eyes.

"Yeah?" Clint spoke while working on one of his many arrowheads. "Get in line."

"Uh," Melody spoke, turning around to face him. "Get behind me."

Clint gave her an annoyed face before Steve cut them off. "Save it. Loki is gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild." The rest of them huddled together, letting Steve stand in front of all of them, waiting for his command. "We got Stark up top. He's gonna need us…"

He trailed off at the sound of a motorcycle and when he turned around, they all noticed Dr. Bruce Banner making his way toward all of them. Melody smiled slightly before pushing through everyone else to be the first one to him. "So," He spoke with a shrug as he looked back and forth at the five of them. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse." Natasha spoke while looking him over.

Bruce gave her a slight smile, still feeling bad about everything he had done to her. "Sorry."

"No." She spoke with the shake of the head, a slight smile growing on her lips. "We could…use a little worse." Melody bit on her lip as she looked back and forth at the two. She was so going down with this ship.

"Tony," Melody spoke, fighting every urge to give Natasha a look she wouldn't appreciate. "You were right. He's here."

"Banner." Tony spoke in a knowing voice with a growing smile. "Tell him to suit up." That's when Melody took her opportunity to raise her eyebrows at Natasha, ending up in a dirty look from the spy. "I'm bringing the party to you."

With that, Tony flew around the corner of the building with the snake like alien following right on his tail. They all took deep breaths, knowing this was about to be a super intense battle. "I don't see how that's a party."

Tony led the eel to the ground, causing it to tear up the road. Bruce got a smile, beginning to go toward it. There was nothing more satisfying to him than knowing that he was going to change by his own doing. "Dr. Banner," Steve stopped him while reaching out his hand, worried about him as much as all of them. "Now might be a really good time to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain." He looked over his shoulder, his smile only getting wider as he walked forward. "I'm always angry." And with that, he began to grow into the huge, green man they were so fascinated with. The Hulk.

They all began to step back when he punched the thing so hard it began rising off the ground, knowing they could be crushed to death at any second. "Hold on." Tony spoke as he flew towards the thing, sending a missile right into its belly. Melody and Clint hurried to get behind a taxi while Steve brought out his shield to protect both him and Natasha when it finally blew.

What was left of it fell from the bridge as all the Avengers stood up and the aliens yelled down at them their revenge. Each and every single one of them got their weapons ready, looking to all the angry aliens while making a circle. This was how they were going to win this battle. By having each other's backs and pulling together all of their best assets. By being a team. "Avengers," Melody spoke with a slight smile growing on her face, thinking about the moment before they all went to Germany to fight Loki. "Assemble."

**_So, I'm planning on making an Agent Carter fic with Maria. I have no idea when that will be up. Maybe in between this and Iron Man 3. I have no idea, but I'll keep you posted. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!_**


	10. Battle Cry

More aliens continued to come through the portal, some were even bigger than the eel they had just took down. "Guys," Natasha spoke in a weary voice.

Everyone turned around if they weren't already facing the direction Natasha was facing, feeling a fear, but most of what they were feeling was confidence. If they worked together as a team, they'd be able to win, and that was something they were never going to think twice about doing again. "Call it, Captain." Melody told him with a shrug, sure as hell not wanting the leadership of this mess.

"Alright, listen up." He moved forward, looking at the portal like this was absolutely insane before looking back to his team. "Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment." He looked over at Melody, taking a deep breath before turning to Clint, hating that he was going to have to split them up. "Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything." Both Melody and Clint looked to each other, taking a deep breath, wondering if they were ever going to have the talk they were both itching to have. "Call out patterns and strays."

After Steve was done giving Clint his instructions, he moved closer to Melody, the two giving each other worried glances. "Nothing's gonna happen." He whispered to her.

"You don't know any of that."

"I know that I believe in you." He told her while moving to hold her hand, beginning to stroke the back of it with his thumb. "And I know you're going to be just fine. Do you believe in me?"

"Stark," Steve called out, tearing them both away from their look for a split second. "You got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Melody gave Clint a beautiful smile, causing a smile to spread across his face as she nodded. "I believe in you."

Clint's smile only got wider at her face. "You wanna give me a lift?" His question was aimed towards Tony, but he just couldn't stop staring at Melody.

"Sure." He spoke as he moved towards him. He really wanted to express how happy he was that Clint was back, but all that could wait for later.

Melody gasped, realizing she had forgotten about something important. "Wait," She stopped Tony just before he was about to blast off to lean in and give a kiss on Clint's cheek. "You're gonna get a lot more if you make it out of there alive." She looked him up and down in a seductive way. Great, now Clint was horny. "Just a little bit of motivation."

Tony sighed, really not wanting to think of his little Melody as this sexually attractive woman, but that's what she had become. And he got a full of that in those six months after Clint left. "Clench up, Legolas." With that, they were off and Clint knew that he had to focus on the matter at hand, but he just couldn't get his mind off Melody and how much he had missed her kisses.

"Thor," Steve spoke, not even picking up on the little exchange between the two. "You've got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down." They two looked up at the portal just as Thor began to swing his hammer that would send him flying in whatever direction he pointed to. "You've got the lightening, light the bastards up."

Steve turned to see both Natasha and Melody side by side, waiting for orders. At the sight of them, he knew the two would be good in a fight together. Add Steve and they may just be unstoppable, "The three of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here." The girls looked to each other, running their weapons through the last tests before taking them into battle.

Steve took this time to give his last order to the final avenger. "And Hulk," The creature looked to him as he brought up his finger, knowing exactly what he was going to say before he began ordering the others. "Smash."

The Hulk looked at his leader, a huge smile coming on his face. With that order, he jumped into the air, taking down the nearest aliens he could find. Bruce, he was on the inside, happy. Happy that he was using this curse he was plagued with for good. He got to lose control for a good cause.

* * *

Thor ended up on the Empire State Building, using all the might and power in him to call down the lightening. It continued to build up as big as he could make it and as much as he could take before he threw it at the portal. It destroyed most of the Chitauri that were coming in the next wave, but it did nothing to the portal itself. It all began to make him feel hopeless. Maybe they wouldn't be able to shut this portal.

* * *

Fury and Emily stood side by side, watching as every news station was reporting on this crisis going on in New York. They believed it was going to work, but to everyone in New York, the end could come to them at any moment. "Director, Supervisor," They both looked up, not even noticing Maria standing behind their screens. "The Council is on." Both Fury and Emily looked too each other, taking a deep breath. This was going to be the worst lecture they had ever gotten.

Fury broke the stare first, looking back to their monitors before pulling down the special line that they used to only talk to the council. Emily took a deep breath, knowing this was going to be the worst part of her whole day.

* * *

Clint stood on one of the highest rooftops, close to Stark Towers, shooting down every Chitauri he saw. "Stark," Clint called out over the radio, knowing he was a good archer, but there was no way anyone would be quick enough to take down every single one of them. "You have a lot of strays coming your way."

Tony looked back, hitting as many as he could before he focused back on flying. "Just trying to keep them off the streets."

"Well, you can't bang with them." Clint claimed before firing an arrow at one of the Chitauri without even looking. "Find a tight corner."

Tony almost forgot that he was an expert at this stuff. He wasn't used to him being a SHIELD agent, but right now, he was going to do anything it took to save the day and get all of them out alive. "I will roger that."

"And Tony," Clint spoke while looking down at the street below them, getting a glimpse of Melody hurling her dagger at one of the many aliens surrounding her. "Melody's on those streets…so get them out of here."

Tony gave a slight smile, remembering just how perfect the two were for each other. "You know I will, Clint." That's when he remembered how badly he wanted those two to get back together. "So, how's it going with all that? Is she gonna take you back any time soon?"

"You two know I can hear everything you're saying, right?!" Melody's voice interrupted through the radio and it was very angry and very wound up.

Both Tony and Clint jumped at how sharp her voice was, knowing they were in trouble with her. "Clint did it." was all Tony had to say, resulting in an eye roll from both Clint and Melody.

"You want me to protect you or not?" Clint asked as he strung up his arrow as Tony got into his line of sight. He aimed, putting a smile on his face, knowing he had the perfect shot. He let go of that arrow, completely disintegrating the Chitauri right on his back, causing Tony to get the upper hand on the rest of them.

They were all tripping over themselves, running into buildings and killing themselves while Tony didn't even lift a finger. All thanks to Clint. "Thanks." Tony spoke, starting to realize that Clint was really good at what he does. "Nice call." He then began to think, knowing that even though this was going to be a traumatic experience, he could still have fun with it. "What else do you got?"

Clint looked around, appreciating his bird's eye view. "Well, Thor's taking out a squadron on 6th."

Tony pulled his lips to the side, knowing he would be able to have fun with that one. "And he didn't invite me."

* * *

Natasha was picked up and thrown on her back on the hood of a taxi. The alien picked up its spear, trying to stab her with it, but she moved her head out of the way before wrapping her legs around him to pull herself up and take out the programming in the back of its neck.

She took over the spear, shooting any of the aliens that came to her, but stopped when she saw that Steve was the next one she was trying to blast away. They both took deep breaths, looking at each other until they heard struggling not too far from them.

Melody was on the ground, beginning to lose a battle with one of the aliens, trying her hardest to puncture it with her knife, but it simply slapped it out of her hands. She looked to the thing with an angry face. She used this time to build up all her anger about everything that had happened since she went to New York. Everyone who thought she couldn't make it as an agent just because she was a rich girl. She didn't like anyone to think it bothered her, but it did and she was starting to be glad she pent the anger up like this.

She leaned forward giving the alien the hardest punch she could, sending it confused and it wasn't even from this world. "I am so tired," She kicked the thing this time, sending it in the air before just whacking it down like it was nothing. She got up, breathing heavily from all the anger. "Of everyone thinking I can't do this!" She punted the thing, sending it a few feet back. She began to walk toward it, the thing looking around with a panic, knowing there was nothing it could do. She was a bad ass and she was killing it with no special skills. Just herself. "Take that, SHIELD!" With one yank, she ripped out its whole programming.

She continued her deep breaths while looking up to see Steve and Natasha staring at her with wide eyes. "Damn." They both commented at the same time while looking her up and down.

She simply shrugged before leaning up against one of the many abandoned cars. She looked up at the portal, taking deep breaths from how tired she was now. "You know," She spoke through ragged breaths. "None of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

They all joined her in looking up at it, feeling the same worry as her. "Our biggest gun couldn't touch it." Steve spoke with the shake of the head.

"Well," Natasha sighed out. "Maybe it's not about guns."

They both looked to her with wide eyes, knowing exactly what she was saying. "If you wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

Natasha looked up at the Chitauri flying on their spacecraft, knowing what she had to do, but at the same time, not really wanting to. "I've got a ride. I could use a boost, though."

Melody's eyes got wide as she looked up at what she was planning on doing. "Good luck." She spoke with a nod while looking back and forth at the two. "I'll cover." She hurried in between them, just wanting to get out of the way as Natasha and Steve continued to back up.

Steve brought his shield in front of him, taking a huge breath, beginning to worry about her. "You sure about this?"

Natasha looked up at the Chitauri, beginning to second guess her plan which is something she didn't really want to do. "Yeah," She told him with a shrug. "It's gonna be fun."

That's when they both took a deep breath before she ran forward, jumping up on the hood of one of the cars for leverage before jumping up on Steve's shield and grabbing onto the alien's vehicle, beginning to fly off with it.

Steve continued to watch her, just wanting to know she was going to be okay until he was disrupted by the sound of metal being torn off. Melody was holding one of the Chitauri's arms in her hands and looked to all the others coming for her. "Help." She spoke obviously. But that was all Steve needed to know what to do.

He thought coming into this that his job was to protect Melody, but he quickly began to realize that no one could protect Melody, but herself. His new job was to fight alongside Melody, trying to be as good as a fighter as her.

* * *

Natasha pulled herself onto the alien's aircraft, taking out the one standing guard in no time, throwing him off. With all of her might, she continued to crawl to the one driving it, feeling the wind resistance was the hardest thing out of all of this.

Once she got to a standing position, she knew she wasn't going to stay like that for long. She jumped on the alien's back, plunging daggers into its neck. With that, she was able to control it, getting right into its programming. The only problem was that she had no idea how to control it. "Turn." She pleaded, not even sure how to do that, trying to lean the way she wanted to turn, but she was only getting closer to running into a building. "Turn, turn, turn, turn!"

The leaning was working and she only grazed the building she was about to hit, causing her to take a deep breath of relief. Yet, she wasn't going by unnoticed by the other aliens. She looked back, not sure what to do until Tony whizzed by, taking out the Chitauri right behind her before flying ahead.

He sped to the street below him, landing right on the Chitauri about to go after Melody. She let out a thankful breath while giving him a small smile before reaching into her utility belt to get out a throwing knife. She hit the alien perfectly in the eye, causing it to fall before going to Tony.

Steve took down one of the aliens near him as Tony blast a few away, but then they all got an idea at the same time. "Mel, down." Tony commanded. She hit the ground as Steve put out his shield and Tony used the thrusters, sending the harmful beam into a group of aliens, taking them down with almost no effort. Melody jumped up from the ground, ready to fight again as Tony flew off.

Tony hit as many aliens as possible, watching them trying to climb up one of the many buildings. He flew past Clint as he took care of the rest of the aliens climbing up the building that Tony couldn't get. Clint stood up from his crouch position, getting an eye on the aircraft that was following Tony. He strung up his bow, making his aim perfect before firing off the arrow, taking down that one aircraft with just that.

Clint smiled as the eel type creature flew by, but he wasn't worried about it. Hulk and Thor were on it, tearing the ship apart along with killing every alien who tried to come into contact with them. The Hulk ripped off a piece of the snake, stabbing it right in the back as Thor called the lightening, bringing his hammer down on it.

It began to lose control, falling into Grand Central Station, sending everyone in there into a panicked frenzy. It slid across the floor until it came to a stop. Both Thor and the Hulk stood there for a moment after getting off of the eel. The two were trying to catch their breath, looking at the damage they had caused.

The Hulk couldn't get rid of his last bit of anger, though. He looked over at Thor, knowing he'd be able to take it. He simply pushed his fist out, sending Thor flying back into the other end of the station, but the Hulk didn't think twice about it.

* * *

Dr. Selvig pushed himself up, feeling the control wearing off and the guilt begin to set in. He looked around at all the explosions, only beginning to imagine the death toll on the city by now. His mouth dropped in horror, not being able to shake off the feeling that he was responsible for this. If it wasn't for him, Loki wouldn't know what to do with the Tesseract. He could have stopped this, but now, he was forced to look at all the damage he had done.

* * *

Everything that specialized in protecting people were on the streets of New York, trying their best to get people off the streets and help the Avengers. And all the Avengers appreciated it greatly, but there wasn't much they could do now.

Melody pushed the alien's spear away from her face as she laid on the ground. Steve then appeared behind the alien, grabbing it by the neck and throwing it over his shoulder. No one was going to hurt Melody as long as he was around. He grabbed her hand, pulling her up, and for the first time, they actually had a moment to catch their breath.

"Mel, Cap," Clint's voice came through the radio, causing them both to give each other a tired stare. "The bank on 42nd past Madison. They cornered a lot of civilians in there."

Steve put his finger to the radio in his ear, still out of breath, but knowing that protecting people was what he signed up to do. "I'm on it." The two hurried up to the bank, stopping once they reached the entrance. "We can't just waltz in." Steve told her while looking back.

"Of course not." Melody spoke obviously with a shrug. "That's why we're attacking them from the back."

She went to her utility belt, beginning to pull out some type of knife as Steve looked to her with a confused face. "What?"

She looked to Steve then back to the bank. "Look through the windows." He looked up, squinting to see what she was seeing. "They're on the upper level, looking down at their hostages with their backs turned towards us." She pointed to the window that was a few feet in the air. "If we go through that window then we can attack them from their blind spot, rescuing all the civilians."

Steve blinked a couple times at her, realizing that she could have been one hell of a soldier. He looked down to what was in her hand, noticing it had two parts to it. "What's that?"

"This is a grappling hook designed to look like a knife." She threw the knife in the air, nailing the stone right by the window perfectly before pressing the button of the device in her other hand, sending down a black wire. She looked over to Steve who was still staring at her with wonderment. She simply shrugged with a smile. "When your boyfriend and best friend are trained spies and assassins, you learn a few things." She pulled herself up with the wire, but Steve continued to stare at her. Maybe he was wrong from the beginning. Maybe Tony was the best possible person who could have raised her. Because now he was seeing, she was an incredibly brave woman and Tony was an incredibly brave man.

The Chitauri stood on the upper portion of the bank, pointing their weapons down at all the civilians who cried and watched on in fear. One of the aliens took a device that would blow up the whole place and began to set it just as Melody pulled Steve through the window to join her.

There was the rapid beeping of the bomb in the background as Steve hurled the shield at the back of one of the Chitauri's head. The other one with it growled at the two, shooting off its spear as the two dove down for cover the opposite ways.

Steve landed in front of a desk, kicking it forward, sending down one of the Chitauri. While they were distracted, Melody got up from her spot, wrestling with one, wrapping her arm around its neck, taking out its programming before tossing it down on the lower portion of the bank.

Steve went to the railing, looking down at everyone below him. "Everyone, clear out!"

One of the aliens grabbed Melody by the hair, pulling as hard as possible, resulting in a scream from her. That distracted Steve to turn around and check on her, but the second he turned around, he was greeted with a punch in the face.

Melody grunted as the alien wrapped its arms around her neck and began to drag her back. She looked over at Steve while struggling with all her might to get free. He was holding onto the railing from how weak he felt from that punch. That's when Melody knew she had to do anything to get out of this grip. She's do anything to help Steve.

She leaned forward, putting all the alien's weight on her back before jumping up and flipping over, landing on the alien harshly before reaching back and ripping out its programming with her bare hands.

Steve looked over at Melody, realizing the same thing Melody had just realized. He stood up, kicking the alien in the face, causing it to drop the rapidly ticking bomb. "Oh no." Steve spoke as it only grew louder. He ran as fast as he could to Melody, picking her up by the arm and forcing her to walk in front of him to get her out of there faster. "Thor!" He called through the radio. "I've got a bomb about to blow and you've got to get to Melody! She won't be able to survive this drop!"

They both backed up so far that they were almost out of the window, forcing them to jump. Melody was immediately caught by Thor's hand, pulling her up onto the aircraft he was on. She reached her hand out for Steve, but he didn't grab it. The explosion blew the second she got on the aircraft. "Steve!"

The impact sent him on the hood of a car, his shield breaking some of his fall, but he was still aching all over. He began to push himself up, taking in deep, ragged breaths and for the first time since this war started, he was starting to doubt that they were going to win.

* * *

They had flown far away from where Steve had landed by now, but Melody continued to look under her, taking in deep breaths. "Melody," Thor finally spoke to her in a gentle tone. "He'll be okay. He has powers beyond the average human."

Melody nodded, still looking down at the battlefield below. Things were exploding all around. People were dying. She just saw one of the strongest men she knew in pain from a fall. Nothing was going to be safe anymore. She was never going to feel totally safe ever again. "I know." She finally spoke in a weak voice. Thor continued to study her with a confused face, not sure why her panic ensued. "But I don't think I ever will be."

_**This chapter is kind of short, but I wanted to stop it with this panic Melody has of never being able to win and the PTSD that's starting to kick in. I hope you all enjoyed! Please review!**_


	11. Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Steve looked out at everything that had happened to New York since they had got involved. People were running from fear, fires were raging and his team was so broken. There's no way any of them would be the same ever again. Not just for all the Avengers, but for the whole world. After today, the whole world would never be the same again.

* * *

Fury and Emily stood where they were left to talk to the Council, the conversation only getting more heated the more destruction that came to New York. "Director Fury and Supervisor Carter," the councilwoman spoke. "The Council has made a decision."

Emily clenched her teeth as she looked over at Fury, not knowing what to tell them. They were just so damn hardheaded. "I recognize that the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid decision, I've elected to ignore it."

"Director," They both turned over to the councilman on the right. "You are closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet – "

"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman!" Emily jumped in, not being able to take this from them anymore. Maria was breathing heavily at what she was hearing. They wanted to destroy New York and all the people in it. The Avengers. "Until I'm certain my team cannot hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against the civilian population!"

"Supervisor," He spoke in a commanding voice, causing her to just clench her fists tighter. "If we don't hold them in the air, we lose everything."

"I'd send the bird out that we already have." She spoke angrily before shutting off their line of communication and looking to Fury. "If they touch that city – "

Fury grabbed her shoulders intensely, looking her right in the eye. "They're not going to do anything. Melody is going to be fine."

Emily could feel all the fear running through her body beginning to come to the surface. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she was shaking, never being so close to losing Melody before and having nothing she could have done to protect her. "Promise me."

Fury stood there, looking at her, pity washing through his whole face because no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't promise her that.

* * *

Natasha continued her ride on the back of the alien driving its aircraft when a blue energy whizzed past them. When she looked back, she began to roll her eyes at his stupid antlers. "Oh, you." He was catching up her on his own version of all the other alien's vehicles, sending off more blasts in her direction. These weren't just any blasts. These were from the Tesseract. "Hawkeye!"

Clint looked over to the direction she was in, but he had to blink a couple of times at the sight of his best friend riding an alien vehicle. "Nat," He spoke in a skeptical voice, probably not ever going to be able to get over this. "What are you doing?"

"Uh," She spoke uneasily, glancing back at Loki before going back to what was right in front of her. "A little help?"

Clint couldn't help this smile beginning to emerge on his face at what she was asking him. He clicked the button on his bow, knowing the perfect arrow to use for the god. "I got him." He pulled the arrow back, his smile only getting wider, knowing this is the one thing he wanted to do since this whole fight started.

His eyes narrowed, waiting until he was in the perfect spot before sending off his arrow. It flew in the air and it would have hit him perfectly if Loki wouldn't have caught it. But it never was Clint's plan for Loki to get hit with it. As Loki looked back at Clint, he sent him a small finger salute before the arrow exploded in his hands, sending him off his aircraft and back onto the Stark Towers balcony.

Loki took a moment to be able to sit back up around all the shards of glass. He threw his head back to get the hair out of his face just in time to see the Hulk jumping at him. He was thrown through the glass windows and into one of the walls, falling to the floor, breathing for help.

Before he could do anything, he looked up with an angry face, the Hulk roaring towards him, only making him madder. He stood up quickly before the Hulk could even do anything. "Enough!" The Hulk stopped running, looking him up and down, confused by his outburst. "You are – all of you are beneath me! I am a _god_, you dull creature!" The Hulk continued to stare at him for a moment, just wanting him to stop talking. "And I will not be bullied by – "

He quickly grabbed him by pulling his legs out from under him. He then rapidly began to throw him from side to side, creating dents in the floor with every time. The throws got even harder the longer they went on until the Hulk got tired of it and left him in one of the dents. The Hulk began to walk off, scoffing as he looked back at the god lying on the ground, gasping for breath. "Puny god."

Loki laid in the rubble of the floor, still not being able to process what had even happened. A weak sound of pain began to linger in his throat, realizing for the first time that he might actually lose this.

* * *

Natasha stood on the roof of Stark Towers, beginning to move towards Dr. Selvig. He was looking down at the balcony of Stark Towers. Natasha moved slowly, not sure if he was still under the control of Loki and if something was going to happen, she wanted to be prepared. He looked up at her and she finally saw that his eyes were no longer the blue Loki was making them. "The scepter." He spoke in wonderment before looking back down on the balcony.

"Doctor?" Natasha asked, thrown by his comment as she moved to crouch down to his eye level.

He sighed, his face only getting sadder as he looked down at it, not really being able to believe that all of this happened because of him. "Loki's scepter, the energy." He finally looked back to her. "The Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself."

Natasha sighed as she looked at him. She hated seeing him like this. She ended up putting one of her hands on his shoulders, looking him right in the eye. "It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing."

That's when an idea passed over Dr. Selvig's face. "Actually, I think I did." Natasha turned her head to the side, not sure what he was talking about anymore. "I built in a safety to cut the power source."

Natasha's eyes widened as she turned her head. That's when everything he was saying all clicked. "Loki's scepter."

"It may be able to close the portal." He told her with a nod before looking back to what his eyes were fixed on before just a floor below him. "And I'm looking right at it."

* * *

Clint shot an arrow off at the closest one to him before reaching in his sack for another arrow. That's when he realized that his last arrow was just used. He looked around panicked, knowing he had to act fast. He pushed back an alien with his bow, before kicking him off the roof. With that borrowed time, he turned to the last alien he took down, pulling the arrow out of its skull and putting it back into his sack.

He clicked a button on his bow, knowing he had to get out of there with all the incoming alien ships. He began to run to the end of the building just as the explosions left a trail behind him before jumping off. Everything seemed to move slower as he spun around while stringing up his bow. He took a deep breath, waiting for the perfect place to let go.

Once he released it, the arrow head attached to the building with a string attached to it. He began to throw his weight down, using the bow to send him down from the sky safely.

* * *

Melody and Thor fought as hard as they could on their spacecraft, forcing it to go in any direction they wanted. Melody looked to one of the aliens behind Thor, making its way towards him, causing her to get an idea. She actually couldn't help her smile. She had always wanted to do this. "Thor," He turned to look at her, ready for what she had to tell him. "Throw me over your shoulder!"

He had no time to argue or question her once he saw one of the aliens beginning to advance on her back. He picked her up the middle of her waist before tossing her over like she weighed nothing to him. She flipped in the air once he released her, sending her on the alien to rip out its programming with no struggle.

That's when it all started to go downhill. A crash rung through the air, and when they both looked, one of the eel like aliens made its way through one of the buildings and was coming right for their spacecraft. They had nowhere to go, but down once it crashed. Thor grabbed onto the nearest building and reached out for Melody's hand, but he just barely missed it. "No!" Thor screamed as all he could do was watch her fall.

Melody thought she was completely done for as the wind whizzed past her until she was abruptly caught, sending her head to throw back harshly. Clint lowered the few feet he had left to get to the ground and walked her to a stop. He pulled harshly on his bow, causing the arrow to come right back down and into his sack.

He threw his bow to rest on his shoulder and looked down at Melody worriedly, knowing her head hadn't come up yet, worrying that the fall might have broken her neck. She was breathing heavily as she raised up her aching neck to look at Clint. For the first time in a long time, she was really looking at Clint. She was studying every feature and she suddenly remembered why she loved him. "You saved me." She spoke through her deep breaths.

Clint's lips pulled into a smile as he looked to her. "Of course I did."

Melody began to mimic his smile, knowing she couldn't string this out anymore. She loved him and all she wanted was to be with him again. "I think we should start over."

Clint nodded, his smile only getting wider at an idea he got. He shifted the weight in how he was holding her to put out his hand. "Hi, I'm Hawkeye."

Melody threw her head back as she giggled at him. When she picked her head back up, she sighed, only more convinced that this was the one man for her. She put out her hand, trying to make a serious face as their hands met. "I'm Dark Violet."

They took an extra moment, holding each other's hands before Melody let go, her face growing serious. She put her hands on his face, pulling him in as he adjusted his grip on her again, getting a better hold. They shared an intense moment, looking into the eyes that they missed so much in the past few months, knowing that they had missed out on that old feeling of home. She pulled him in, finally giving him that kiss that they had been teasing since they met again. And in this kiss, they finally knew that now was their time. Finally, they were the lucky ones.

* * *

Once Tony was sure Melody was safe, he flew by the eel, feeling it was time for revenge against this thing for almost killing his niece. He began blasting the side of it, sighing when he realized it wasn't doing any damage. "Sir," Jarvis spoke. "We're losing power before you penetrate that shell."

Tony flew around it, trying to find out how to get to this thing…when he finally got it. "Jarvis," His words were glowing with excitement. "You ever hear of the Tale of Jonah?"

"I," Jarvis spoke with uneasiness, realizing what his master was going to do. "Wouldn't consider him as a role model."

He circled the beast until he got right in front of it, going right for its mouth. He traveled through it, blasting at every chance he got, taking it apart from the inside, causing it to fully blow up and send him flying into a glass bus stop. He skidded to a stop on the street, struggling to get up, but once he got up, he took a blow by one of the aliens, sending him right back down. And only more began to advance towards him.

* * *

Maria was pounding away on the screen that stood in front of her before looking back to the two in charge. "Sir, we have a bird in motion!" Emily and Fury froze in that second. They did it. They were really planning on killing everyone in Manhattan to stop this alien attack. "Anyone on deck, we have a bird in motion!"

Fury took off in the other direction as Emily moved forward, bent on stopping it. She began pounding buttons on the screen, locking everything she could to make that trip impossible. "That is a rogue bird!" Emily yelled out to everyone. "We need to shut it down!"

Fury ran out on the hanger of the helicarrier with an RPG resting on his shoulder, just waiting for the jet. It rushed on the runway right into a prepared Nick Fury. He shot it, the back becoming completely destroyed before skidding to a stop.

He took a moment, feeling relief until another jet took off in the opposite way. There was nothing he could do about it. He pulled out his pistol, ready to shoot, but it was too far away. There would be no damage done to the jet, and it was now headed for the island of Manhattan.

Emily took a deep breath, looking at the footage from the runway, knowing there was one option they had left. She put her finger to her ear, taking a deep breath before talking. "Stark, do you hear me? We have a missile headed straight for the city."

Tony pushed himself up as the aliens continued their advance towards him. "How long?"

"Three minutes, at best." Fury joined Emily in the control room, knowing exactly who she was calling for this mission. "Stay low and wipe it out."

Tony just kept getting hit by the aliens, but he didn't need to worry about them anymore. He had something completely different to worry about. "Jarvis, put everything we've got into the thrusters!"

"I just did, sir." Jarvis reported right as Tony shot off into the sky in search for the missile.

* * *

Right when the jet got in view of the Brooklyn Bridge, the pilot knew it was time to let go of his package. With only the press of the button, he let go of something so destructive, it would kill millions in seconds. "Package is set. Detonation in two minutes and thirty seconds."

* * *

Thor, Steve, Melody and Clint stood around each other, all of them having each other's backs as they fought each alien with their own personal skills. Thor swung his hammer and Steve assassinated all that came his way with his shield. Melody and Clint used their strength along with her daggers and his arrows.

Steve thought he was clear as he moved his shield away from him, but he was immediately shot in his stomach, sending him down. Thor blocked all of their shots with his hammer to get to his friend and Melody and Clint shot down as many as they could in protection of Thor. Right when Thor got close enough, he kicked back a nearby car, destroying each alien trying to hurt Steve.

Melody put out her hand for him as Clint helped him up from the back and Thor used himself as a shield for any other aliens trying to get to him. "Are you ready for another bout?" Thor questioned once he was standing and resting his hand on his wound.

Steve smiled to himself as he looked around at the place. "What, you getting sleepy?"

Each of them gave him a slight smile, but as they looked around, they weren't sure how much more they could take.

* * *

Natasha moved forward with Loki's scepter as Dr. Selvig monitored it on the computer. "Right to the front." He instructed the closer she got.

It took strength for her to even try to break the barrier, but once it got through, she knew she'd be able to take the whole thing down. "I can close it." She spoke through the radio. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

Each of them on the ground looked to each other with wide eyes. "Do it!" Steve commanded.

"No! Wait!" Tony's voice came through, causing Melody to second guess even closing the portal.

"Stark, these things are still coming."

"I've got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute." Melody's eyes widened at his news, knowing Tony. Knowing exactly what he was going to do. "And I know just where to put it."

Right as Tony caught it, Melody could hear the whizzing from the other side. "But Tony," She spoke in a fearful, shaky voice as Clint stood near her, knowing she was going to need him soon. "If you do this…you'll die."

"And you'll be safe." He told her with such assurance, it was breaking her heart. She didn't want her last words with Tony to be over a radio. "I love you, Mel. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me." Melody could feel herself beginning to shake at everything. She could lose everyone, but she just couldn't lose Tony. Not for real this time. "Clint," Clint looked up at the mention of his name, feeling tears beginning to collect in his eyes while Melody already had tears streaming down her face. "Take care of my girl."

Clint nodded through the tears, not wanting to lose Tony, but at the same time, knowing there was no way they were talking him out of this. "Yes, sir."

Tony disconnected communications with them as a tear fell down his cheek. He didn't want to leave Melody either, but he had to have her be safe. "Dammit!" He cursed as he rolled his head back, the sound of her tears just playing through his mind again.

"Sir," Jarvis spoke in a solemn voice. "Shall I try Miss. Potts?"

He looked up at his screen, being able to see the contact picture come up. It was a picture of her smiling, her strawberry blonde hair tied into a professional ponytail, but the best part was her smile. She looked so happy. And Melody was smiling right next to her. The two girls had smiles so bright, he was happy that this was going to be the last thing he saw of the two. They were reminding him why he was doing this. "Might as well." With all of his speed and the strength he got from seeing Melody and Pepper's smiling faces, he flew up, past Stark Towers and into the black hole of the portal into space.

Once he and the missile had gotten through, everyone in the SHIELD helicarrier began cheering. Everyone except Emily and Fury. Sure, it was a win, but they lost Tony from this win. So, to them, they weren't winning much.

Tony's suit began to shut down once he was in space and his picture of Melody and Pepper went away. Since the suit was shutting down, his arc reactor was shutting down and so was his heart. He let go of the missile and watched as he began to float away from it. He was getting weak as the missile continued to fly through the air, but he was going to stay awake for as long as he could. When the missile finally reached the Chitauri's space station, all of the Chitauri on earth shut down instantly, just leaving their lifeless bodies lying all through the streets.

Melody looked back up at the portal from all the Chitauri bodies, just waiting and hoping for Tony to come back down. "Please, please, please, please." She whispered rapidly as Clint put his hands on her shoulders.

Once Tony saw the space station blow, he knew he had done his job. Melody was going to be safe now. That's all he ever wanted. His eyes slowly shut close, finally feeling the peace to fall asleep as his body continued to fall through the air.

All the Avengers were looking up at the portal anxiously, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Come on, Stark." Natasha whispered to herself.

Steve sighed as he saw the explosion from inside the portal, knowing he would never be able to apologize to Tony for everything he said while they were on the helicarrier. Because every bad thing he had ever said about him was proven wrong today. "Close it." Steve spoke with a sigh.

"No!" Melody screamed as she tried to run forward, but Clint grabbed her by the waist, lowering her down to the ground as Natasha moved forward, shutting the thing with Loki's scepter.

Melody let out deep breaths with her hands on the street, not being able to believe what was happening. A noise as loud as thunder rocked the sky just as the portal closed, causing them all to look up at it. Melody then let out a smile at what she was seeing. Tony was falling through the air from where the portal was. He made it. "Tony." She whispered as her smile got wider.

"Son of a gun." Steve spoke as a smile also grew on his face.

Clint began to stand up, helping Melody also as they both looked up, smiles never bigger than they were before. "He did it."

Melody continued her smile until he began to get close to the top of some of the taller buildings. "His thrusters should have kicked in by now."

"He's not slowing down." Thor spoke as he began to spin his hammer, in the thought of flying up to catch him.

Just as he was about to jump, the Hulk jumped through the air, catching him and falling to the ground with Tony lying on his stomach. They all ran to where the Hulk had landed just as he threw Tony off of him, having him land on his back.

Melody fell to the ground first, scrapping her knees up from it, but she didn't care one bit. All she cared about was getting Tony safe. She spun him over, pulling his head to rest on her lap as the others got there, Clint close to the Hulk, Thor on Tony's left and Steve right at the middle of his body next to Thor. Thor pulled off his face mask, revealing an unconscious face. Melody began slapping the sides of his face in hopes of him waking up as Steve put his ear to his chest piece. "Tony!" Clint yelled as he used one of his arrows to pry open some of his armor so they could get a better look at what they could do to save him.

As they looked at his lifeless face, they knew that it was too late. Melody held onto his cheeks, knowing it was too late, but still not wanting to accept it. She leaned forward, pulling his head to her lips before planting a kiss on his forehead. "Please don't leave me." Her tears fell onto his face, causing everyone standing around to feel this insane sadness at the fact that they had actually lost Tony.

The Hulk, Bruce Banner was inside of him, not willing to give up on his new friend. The Hulk let out a loud roar, causing the arc reactor to kick back in again, waking up his heart and him. He screamed and let out gasps, causing Melody to pull away from his face as she studied every inch of it. He was back. He was right in front of her again. Everyone let out relieved faces as his gasps continued. "What the hell?" He breathed out as the Hulk let out another roar.

Tony looked back and forth at each of them, still taking deep breaths. "What just happened?" Clint and Melody's eyes met with excited smiles before looking back down at Tony in wonderment. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Melody leaned forward, not being able to help it anymore. "I'm about to kiss you." She began planting kisses all over his face, just happy that the one man that had always been there for her throughout her whole life was safe and back with her.

"Oh, Mel, no." Tony complained, but secretly, this was the best thing he could think of. His little girl showing all the love she had for him.

"We won." Steve spoke almost in disbelief as Melody stopped kissing Tony, but was looking down at him with a happy smile.

Tony let out a relieved sigh as his head fell back into Melody's lap. "Alright, hey!" He spoke happily as he opened his eyes again. "Alright, good job, guys." Everyone looked to each other, with wide smiles, but their smiles began to get softer once they saw the smile Melody and Clint were giving each other. "Let's just not come in tomorrow." Clint gave Melody a small shrug, only causing her smile to get wider. "Let's just take a day." Tony looked over at Clint, causing the two lovebirds to look back to Tony. "You ever try shawarma?"

All Clint could do was smile at him, never being happier at the fact that Tony Stark was alive. "No, Tony, I have never tried shawarma."

"Well," He spoke as he picked the upper half of his body up to look. "There's a shawarma joint two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

"We're not finished yet." Thor reminded, causing them all to look up at Stark Towers. They had almost forgotten about the war criminal.

Tony nodded, but then looked back to Thor. "Then shawarma after."

* * *

Loki pulled himself up onto the steps of Stark Towers, finally getting strength after Hulk treating him like a toy. He let out deep breaths from his weakness before looking over to where he thought someone was staring. That's where he found earth's mightiest heroes. Clint was crouched on the ground, pulling the string on his bow back as he looked at the god. Natasha held his scepter on the far left next to Thor who gripped his hammer even tighter, knowing that his brother was reckless. Melody stood next to him, holding her dagger down low, but keeping it ready if it was needed. Steve stood next to his great niece, holding his shield in front of him and Tony stood next to his uncle, their issues with each other finally resolved without saying. And Hulk, he stood behind Tony, ready to treat Loki like a toy again.

Loki looked back and forth at all of them nervously, knowing there was nothing he could do. He was stopped by the Avengers. And the best thing he could do now was to go quietly. "It it's all the same to you." Loki spoke while looking over at Tony with a slight smile. "I'll have that drink now."

The Hulk let out a growl as the rest of the six just stared him down, ready to see the justice he was going to have to pay to the people of earth.

_**There should be only one chapter left in this story and then I will go to my Once Upon a Time story. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the action scenes. I feel like I'm really bad at writing them, but they are necessary! Please review!**_


	12. Lucky Ones

_**Here's the last chapter! I'm not sure when the Iron Man 3 story is going to be up, but I'm going to be taking a break from this series to focus on my Once Upon a Time story for a while. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy the last chapter!**_

Once Loki was taken care of by SHIELD, the Avengers got their shawarma and then returned back to Stark Towers. They just needed to rest. Most of them were lying in the living room, talking and getting a chance to just be friends together, but two of the Avengers were missing. Two that really needed to have alone time.

Clint was on top of Melody, planting soft kisses all on her body as Melody ran her hands through his hair. Melody moaned in delight as he hit her spot before holding his shoulder in her mouth. "Melody," Clint whispered through delighted gasps. "We can't just do _this_."

She sighed as she looked out at the setting sun peeking through the blinds of her window as her fingers still traveled through his hair. "Somehow _this_ just seems easier."

Clint picked his head up from the surface of her body to look her in the eye, moving some of the crazy strands of hair from her face. "That's because this is the easy stuff." Melody ran her hand down his head and onto the back of his neck, looking him right in the eye, waiting for him to ask her what he needed to ask. "We need to know what we're doing."

"Well," Melody asked as Clint moved on her side, his hand snaking over to her other side. "What are you going to do?"

Clint gave her a slight smile as he propped his head up on his elbow, realizing what she was doing as her smile got bigger. "What am I gonna do?" She bit her lip as she nodded at him. "Well," Clint moved his hand so he was right on the side of her hip. "I am going to go," His fingers began to move down so he was right under her belly button and above her flower, causing a smirk from her. "Down to Washington, and," His fingers went down even further, putting him right next to it. "Fury's gonna be down here – "

She laughed out a gasp before grabbing his hands, Clint becoming confused, but delighted by her laughter. "Fury is not going to be anywhere down there."

Clint began to laugh before putting his face to her face, taking in all of her beauty, finding it crazy that he could feel so much for just one person. "I love you."

Melody looked up at him, her eyes suddenly wide. "That's the first time you told me that since we were in the hospital."

He nodded as he pulled away from her slightly to take the look of her face in. "I know." He stroked her face with his thumb, giving her a long, loving look. "And even though everything has changed, I still mean it the same way I did then…maybe even more."

Melody became bashful at that, trying to hide under the sheets before asking, "If I decide to go with you, what will be waiting for me in Washington DC?"

"Well," He spoke in his tired, husky voice. "I've got a very spacious two bedroom apartment." Melody raised her eyebrows at him, trying to give him an impressed face. "Very modern, lots of glass, but it could use more of a home type feel that only a certain person could make." He elaborated as she nodded intensely, knowing that she wanted to go anywhere he went just by the more he talked. "And I've got a dog there."

"You've got a dog?" She asked excitedly. Melody had always wanted a dog, but Tony knew he was going to end up forgetting to take care of the thing and he didn't want to put that kind of responsibility on Pepper or Melody.

"Yes," He told her excitedly. "He just walked into my life recently."

"What kind of dog?" She asked, getting more excited the more she pictured their life together. "What did you name it? And please tell me you didn't name him Dog?"

"No." Clint spoke in an offended tone even though he knew that was the first name for it that popped into his mind. "He's a Labrador…I think."

"How do you not know?" Melody spoke in an annoyed tone.

"I rescued him off the street, it's not like I went out and decided I was going to buy a puppy one day." Melody rolled her eyes with a smile spreading on her face, just causing Clint's smile to get bigger. "I named him Lucky."

Melody nodded, loving the name and loving the idea of owning a dog with Clint. This was going really fast for just getting back together, but they just couldn't help themselves. This is where they would have been if they were normal people. They were just catching up on lost time. "What am I going to do for a job?" Melody asked in more of a taunting way as she looked him up and down.

Clint chuckled slightly. "I think after today you're definitely going to be guaranteed a job as a SHIELD agent." He shook his head, realizing something. "Do you even _need_ a job? Aren't you worth millions?"

"Yeah," Melody spoke with a scoff. "Remind SHIELD of that after I almost died for their cause today, will you?"

"So," Clint spoke excitedly. "What are you going to do, Melody?" She looked up at him, biting her lip with excitement. "Are you gonna stay in New York, go back to Malibu or are you going to come with me?"

Melody took a deep breath, knowing Clint was nervous for her answer as he twitched while looking her up and down. "Even though I've grown to love New York and Malibu is my home," She looked up at him, her smile growing even wider. "You're my heart." Clint let a relieved sigh and a smile matching that sigh. "And I can't go anywhere without my heart, can I?"

Clint looked at her lovingly while stroking her forehead. "Not it on telling Tony."

Melody's face twisted into anger at him and also realization that she was going to have to tell Tony about her move. "Dammit."

He leaned forward, kissing the top of her head, both of their smiles just growing wider at each other's touch. "I love you, though."

Melody let out a loving sigh as she messed with his hair again before pulling him in for a kiss. When they broke away, Melody was staring up at him, a smile resting on her face. "For some odd reason, _you_ have me until the end."

He rolled his eyes at her while shaking his head. "Shut up."

She punched him on the shoulder, causing him to roll over on the other side from pain. "Don't tell me to shut up!"

"_When_," Clint groaned while continuing to hold his arm. "Did you get so strong?"

"I'm training to be a SHIELD agent." She spoke obviously with a shrug. She then rolled over on top of him as he still held his arm. She moved closer to him, planting a kiss on his lips. "I love you, though."

Clint scoffed as he looked at her, knowing what he was going to say was going to be the exact opposite of how he felt. "I hate you."

* * *

The next morning, Fury and Emily had arrived on the penthouse floor, causing all the Avengers to freeze from the breakfast they were currently having. "Avengers," Fury spoke as he walked inside. Tony and Steve were in the kitchen, looking at each other with confused faces as Thor sat at the table and Natasha and Bruce sat on the couch. "Good morning."

"Yeah," Tony spoke with a confused voice as the two made their way out of the kitchen. "Why are you here?"

"We're checking on you." Emily spoke in an obvious tone.

Natasha began to nod with a growing smile, realizing why they were really here. "You want to find out if Clint and Melody are together, too?"

"No." Fury spoke with an eye roll.

"Speak for yourself." Emily spoke as she moved forward, sitting next to Natasha. "That's why I came with you."

"Come on, Fury." Tony urged as he got closer. "You know you want to know."

Fury sighed, looking to Tony with an unamused face. "Maybe a little."

"Come on, guys." Steve spoke as he looked back and forth at all of them. "Let them have their privacy."

Tony smirked at him as Thor looked up from his bowl of cereal. "I do not understand." They all turned to look at him. "I thought Clinton and Melody were already a couple."

"No," Bruce spoke as he looked back at him. "The two were together, but then he ended up being a member of SHIELD, sent in the spy on her so the two broke up." They all looked to him with wide eyes, shocked that he knew everything about them. "What?" He asked with a shrug. "I read."

They all let out soft chuckles just as Clint and Melody made their way into the living room, quieting everyone. Melody bit her lip at the attention while running a hand through her bedroom hair. Clint's black shirt and boxers were baggy on her, hiding her and Clint's held hands. Clint wore a muscle shirt along with plaid green pajama pants Melody had arranged for him and he was also looking at everyone else with an embarrassed face.

"Good morning." Clint and Melody spoke at the same time before weaving their way into the kitchen.

"Good morning." They all spoke back in different tones. Melody and Clint looked to each other worriedly, knowing the questioning was just about to begin.

"So," Natasha spoke in her usually seductive voice as she positioned herself on the couch so she could look at the two. "Are you two together or not?"

"Do you have to be so blunt?" Steve asked her in a complaining tone, wanting to just give his niece the space she needed.

"No," Tony spoke as he looked the two up and down. "Seriously, though, are you two together?"

Melody looked up at him, giving him daggers for eyes as she opened a jar of peanut butter. The room had gotten deathly quiet, giving Melody and Clint a time to look at each other and decide what they were going to tell the team. "We're together." Clint finally spoke.

"Thank god." Tony breathed out with relief.

"About time." Natasha spoke with an eye roll.

"This is good news!" Thor spoke as he got up and hugged the two.

Melody, she couldn't take her eyes off Tony since Clint told everyone. "And," Melody spoke, everyone getting quiet so they could hear. "We're going to be living together." Tony looked up at her, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "In Washington DC."

Tony's face completely dropped as everyone else gave her their excitement. She would be with Natasha, Steve and Emily and that was good, but she wouldn't be with Tony. They didn't want to say it, but it was really breaking their hearts at the fact that they wouldn't be together for longer than they originally expected. It was only supposed to be six months, but now, it was going to be for the rest of their lives.

"So," Fury spoke, breaking the excitement, causing Melody to finally break her stare with Tony. "I take it you're going to become a SHIELD agent."

Melody gave him a smile and a shrug as everyone else got quiet. "If you'll have me."

Both Fury and Emily looked to each other, smiles on their faces before looking back to Melody. "I think we can pull some strings." Emily spoke with a smile on her face, causing Melody to let out a light laugh.

Tony gave her a weak smile, proud of her, but at the same time, sad. He was glad she was becoming who she was meant to be, but he hated that he wasn't going to be in her life as much anymore. He knew this was coming, but he didn't expect it all to happen so suddenly. "I'm proud of you, Mel." He finally spoke, his voice coming out shakier than expected.

Melody couldn't take this anymore. She hurried to him, the two pulling each other in so tight for a hug, knowing they were going to have to cherish this one. It was going to be one of the lasts for a while.

Their hug was almost immediately interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors opening and a shrill, "TONY STARK AND MELODY BARNES!"

The two froze for a minute before Tony pushed Melody in front of him, not wanting to face the wrath any more than she did. "Melody did it!" Tony yelled as Pepper and Rhodey made their advance towards them and the two kept scrambling from panic as everyone was taking amusement in this. They had never seen the two this nervous.

"You two are in so much trouble." She spoke when she only got a couple inches from Melody's face.

"You both could have gotten yourselves killed!" Rhodey yelled at them, looking at Melody the most since she was in front as Melody worked on pushing Tony to the front, but it wasn't working. "What on earth were you thinking?!"

Melody looked back at Tony taking a big step back, making him now in front of Rhodey. "He's the one who willingly flew into an alien portal with a nuclear bomb."

"What?!" Pepper screamed out.

"Hey," Tony spoke while putting his hands up in defense. "The world is safe from aliens now. I think I did okay."

"And the city is destroyed." Rhodey added.

"One problem at a time." Tony spoke with a nod at him.

Pepper moved forward, knowing that Tony had come so close to dying again. She just wanted to forget about being mad and be with him for a change. She placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled him in for a passionate kiss, causing everyone in the room to smile. "Don't ever do that again." Pepper commanded the second she pulled away.

"I promise." Tony whispered while giving her a loving stare.

"Emily," They all turned to look at Rhodey who was moving to her to give her a hug. "I heard you were back, but I haven't seen you in so long."

The two pulled away from the hug, Emily giving him a very excited smile. Melody began to turn her head to the side, curious at this smile. "Yeah, it's been a really long time."

The two were smiling very widely, causing Melody to begin to question a lot of things. This wasn't the first time they had smiled like this at each other now that she thought about it. "You look great."

Emily began to giggle a lot more than she needed to for that compliment. Now, Melody had no doubt in her mind what they were doing. "You look amazing."

"Okay!" Melody interrupted loudly as she move to stand in between them. She looked back and forth between the two, trying to keep the best smile on her face. "Stop it." They both opened their mouths at the same time, but Melody was determined to cut them off. "I know what you're doing!"

The two immediately stopped, resulting in a smile from Tony, knowing Melody could stop anything if she put her mind to it. As he watched her though, he got this sense of sadness. She was leaving him. Not just for six months this time. She was leaving permanently. He was happy that she was going to be living a life of love with Clint, but that also meant that she wouldn't be living a life with him. And Tony just didn't know how to cope with that.

* * *

Fury and Emily stood in a private room where they could talk to the World Security Council about defying their orders and saving the whole world. They both had no idea where they stood with them, but honestly, they couldn't care less. Their team saved the world and they were proud of them. "Where are the Avengers?" The councilman straightened up as he asked that question, not knowing what to do with the two.

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts." Fury told them as Emily shrugged.

"I'd say they earned a leave of absence."

Some of the council members rolled their eyes at her response before one of them asked, "And the Tesseract?"

"The Tesseract is where it belongs." Emily stressed as she folded her arms. "Out of our reach."

"That's not your call." The councilwoman argued as she crossed her arms right back at Emily.

"We didn't make it." Fury told her with a shrug. "I just didn't argue with the god that did."

One of the councilmen grabbed his temples, beginning to rub them at how upset these two were making them. But in the end, Fury and Emily knew they saved the world and nothing would make them feel better than that. "So, you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crime."

"I don't think you two know what you started." The councilwoman told them angrily. "Letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."

"They sure are." Fury told her with a shrug. "And the whole world knows it. _Every_ world knows it."

"Was that the point in all this?" The councilman on the end asked, causing both of them to turn with smirks on their faces. "A statement?"

Emily shook her head, her smile turning into a genuine one. "A promise." The video conference faded to black and with that, both Fury and Emily's smiles got wider as they headed out the door and into the rest of the helicarrier.

* * *

SHIELD agents stood behind them as the remaining six walked in behind Thor gripping Loki's arm tightly. Tony held the box containing the Tesseract with Bruce standing the closest to him. Melody, Clint and Natasha walked together as Clint's arm was draped over her shoulder. Steve, he stayed close, but kept his distance, knowing he had a lot more to get close to than he could in just a couple of days.

Tony opened up the box as Dr. Selvig got close to him with the only case in the world that would be able to handle the Tesseract. Bruce got a pair of tongs to get the cube out of its box as the rest of them stared, really beginning to hate that thing.

Thor took the case once the Tesseract was safely inside. He looked to Dr. Selvig, clapping his shoulder, glad that he was as normal as he could be after a god controlled his brain. He then turned to look at all of his new friends with a sad smile. Even though they had only known each other for a few days (and for most of those days they were arguing), he already felt so close to them. He wanted to stay, but he knew that he would meet all of them again.

Thor moved to his brother as the rest of them created a circle around the two. Loki was staring down STRIKE Team: Delta and their new recruit. Natasha leaned in between the two lovers and began to whisper something in their ears, not stopping the eye contact with Loki. Clint wore sunglasses so you couldn't see his eyes hold delight, but you could see it all over his smile and the way he pulled Melody in closer.

Thor forced Loki to grab hold of the other end of the Tesseract case which opened up a portal, sending them back into space as everyone stepped back, all sad that they had to see Thor go.

Once they were gone, Melody pulled her uncle by the arm, forcing him to follow her, but he had a smile on his face. She wouldn't be able to force him to do anything for a long time. She had both Steve and Tony face each other with her standing right in the middle. "Time to kiss and make up." They both looked to Melody with an unamused face at her choice of words, ending in a shrug from her. "Oh, we all thought it in the helicarrier."

Both Steve and Tony rolled their eyes at her before looking back to each other. They both extended their hands with a meaningful smile on both of their faces. Melody gave both of them an excited smile before turning around to say goodbye to Bruce by hugging him tightly, obviously something he wasn't used to. They were both looking at her, smiling at the way she made everyone around her feel loved. Tony would really miss that. "Take care of my little girl when you get to DC." Tony told Steve, their hands still together in the shake.

Steve let out a loving sigh as he looked at her, realizing Tony's pain. He would hate to be without her, too. "You have my word, Mr. Stark."

The two looked back to each other, giving each other an appreciative smile, finally realizing that their views of each other at the beginning were so wrong. They were both so much more than they thought. They were just glad that they had the opportunity to realize it. "I appreciate it, Captain."

Steve walked away from Tony as Melody left Bruce and Bruce went to Natasha. She gave him a flirty smile as she handed him his things which Melody raised her brow at. She would have spent more time on it if she didn't have to take care of this growing lump in her throat. She nervously swayed towards Tony, not sure if she wanted to cry or smile. He stopped her by grabbing her shoulders and looking her right in the eye. "DC is a big city." Tony told her as she looked up at him, feeling just like a little kid again. "The most crime happens there. So…be careful."

He couldn't think of anything else to say and on the inside, he was really beating himself up for that. Melody let out a small smile though. She knew exactly what he was doing. "Don't kill yourself while I'm gone."

He shrugged, his smile only growing. She was simply trying to make him feel better about himself. "Well," He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets, not wanting her to leave. "This is me we're talking about."

She couldn't take it anymore. She fell into his chest, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight. Tony did the exact same. He never wanted to let go, but he knew that she wanted to. "I love you." She whispered out, her voice wavering slightly as she held back those tears.

"I love you more." He whispered back, planting a kiss on the top of her head, thankful that he had those sunglasses on to stop all the Avengers from seeing his tears.

That's when they decided to pull away. They stared into each other's eyes, giving the other a large smile. They would see each other again. They would talk on the phone every day. It's not like this was the end of the world. It was just a drastic change.

Bruce approached them from behind Tony, causing Melody to give him a bright smile. "Are you ready, Dr. Banner?" Tony asked as he turned around to face him.

Bruce began to laugh with a shrug. "I would love to see Stark Towers."

Melody and Tony looked back to each other, knowing their relationship was strong enough to handle this separation. They meant everything to each other and nothing would change from time zones apart. "See you, Tony."

Tony's smile only got wider as she began to walk backwards. "See you, Melly."

She let out soft giggles before turning around and heading to her parked baby blue MINI Cooper. Tony shook his head with a bright smile at her. He loved her more than anything. No amount of distance would ever change that. "Let's get going, doc." The two climbed into his sports car and the two began to drive off with happy smiles.

Natasha leaned up against her car with Clint, the two sharing smiles. "I will call you as soon as I get to DC." He promised to Natasha.

"Oh, no," Natasha spoke as she shook her head with a growing smile. "You two take as long as you want being lost on a beach somewhere or the snowy Alps." She then turned her head to the side, realizing she had no idea where her two best friends were going. "Are you ever going to tell me where you're going to get lost?"

Clint began to chuckle with a growing smile and shrug. "That would just defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?"

Melody's car jolted to a stop from speeding as she honked the horn, waiting for Clint to get in. Clint turned to smile at her, knowing there was no one else on the world who he would rather get lost with. Clint hugged Natasha goodbye before climbing into her passenger's seat before looking out the window of her driver's seat. "See ya, Rogers." Melody called as he mounted his motorcycle. He gave her a bright smile, not being able to wait to get to know his great niece. He gave her a small salute before speeding off.

Melody turned to Clint, letting out a deep sigh, excited that they were finally going to be alone for weeks on an amazing vacation. "So," She spoke, her voice shaking with excitement. "Where are we going?"

Clint smiled, an idea occurring to him, knowing the perfect place. This was going to make her really happy and that's all he ever wanted to make her. "Tahiti."

"Tahiti?" She repeated, confused with his choice.

He nodded, his smile only getting bigger, knowing there was so much more he could show her because she was now a SHIELD agent. "It's a magical place."

* * *

Both Fury and Emily stood so they were able to see the helicarrier glide through the sky as Maria moved towards them. "Sir," They both turned slightly, not able to take their eyes off the beauty of the light blue. "How does it work now? They've gone their separate ways. Some pretty extremely far." They both nodded, already knowing the answer to that question. "If we get into a situation like this again, what happens then?"

"They'll come back." Emily told her with a simple shrug.

"Are you sure about that?"

Fury nodded, really smiling for the first time in a while. "I am."

Her head turned to the side, obviously not seeing what the other two were. "Why?"

"Because we'll need them to." Fury told her simply. With that, Maria understood. She nodded, a slight smile on her face, now believing in the Avengers Initiative just as much as Emily and Fury did. Their faith, it worked. The Avengers Initiative was the biggest success and their team was the best. Together, they saved the world. Really, SHIELD and their Avengers were the lucky ones.


	13. Melody Barnes: Human

**Melody Barnes: Human is now up! Iron Man 3, here we come!**


End file.
